Lou Dunipace (b. 1972) is a British artist whose paintings are characterised by an acute observation of surface texture and mark. Moving between tight brushwork in an area of focus and free flowing gestures that capture the surrounding atmosphere, her work tends towards the expressionistic. Her paintings amplify moments of human encounter: a reckoning with the landscape, often created en plein air, or through the intimacy of portraiture. “ Whether I am painting in the imposing highlands or the bridge of a delicate nose my response is rooted in observation. Recently, I’ve embraced the slightly sculptural element in my work, where light bounces between lanes of colour building up layers of oil paint, working building up layers of oil paint, from this transparent glazes to think impasto marks.”
Born in Northamptonshire, Dunipace holds a Masters Degree in Fine Art from Bristol, where she majored in printmaking. Incorporating numerous techniques from embossing and lithograph to collagraph plates made from found materials. Dunipace’s abiding interest in the transformative power of mark making, combined with a capacity for close observation began early whilst studying Fine Art in Barcelona. “I encountered the bold brave mark making of Tapies the abstract artist form the city. I found the medium of printing using these methods allowed me to build up layers organically, reminiscent of the history imposed on this wonderful city.”
After graduation Dunipace apprenticed to Bernard Bates and Eric Rawlins, Northamptonshire decorative artists who specialised in the paint effects and surface finishes. during this formative period she studied the surface character of building materials, close painterly work emulation luxuries finishes. Dunipace learnt to conjure new surfaces on old: Tinos marble out of plywood, the knotted eyes of burr walnut on MDF, jointed stonework or freshly set plaster on tired painted walls. her process was transformation; the painted overlay disguising what lay beneath, and enhancing its perceived value. “Working mostly in oil and water-based glazes I learnt how to imitate a variety of materials, it took me to some amazing places and I met some wonderful characters. I was a fake artist really!”
Starting a family and returning to Northamptonshire in 2008 marked the start of an exciting new direction in both subject and practice for Dunipace: intentionally breaking free from the strict language of decoration. Yet a knowledge of patterns, where a line should curve or a repeat will organically manifest, underscores Dunipace’s painting practice today. What has changed is the space she creates and the depth she gives to her subject, which is representative of the artist finding a place for her own point of view – her voice – within the work. “Unlike my previous work, where I was following an established set of marks, I am not trying to think of the end point, of the finished thing. By stepping into the unknown, literally en plein air, I am learning to stay with a moment, hoping to translate this with a fluency of gesture that reflects how I feel, and captures the moment in light and colour.”
In painting from observation, Dunipace has developed a distinct vocabulary of mark making, one that captures the unique interplay of light with surface texture, whilst also giving voice to her experience of this encounter. Her works convey a powerful sense of the moment, of being in the face of something greater than the self. In this sense her landscapes like The Great Glen I, or Towards Zennor evoke feelings of the sublime. Dunipace’s landscapes are theatrical and encapsulate her awe and respect for nature’s majesty. “I feel so small and insignificant in the face of these epic landscapes, but I am carried by an urgency, a need to seize this window of opportunity – 20 minutes maybe – in which to capture that feeling of place. There have been plenty of fails: time runs out, or I loose a board in a gust of wind or even an easel over the side of a cliff – but I know I just have to keep going back, trying again.”
The challenge of painting en plein air is that the artist only has a small time frame in which to work, when the light is constant enough. What defines her practice is her dynamic, immediate response, having familiarised herself with working quickly early on in her career. “About eight years ago, up in Scotland, down on the river I remember looking back and seeing a storm coming in, I just stayed out there and painted, in that extraordinary highland light. If you stay with it long enough, your eyes tune into all the wonderful colours that emerge from the greys, the violets and blues, the fierce oranges and citric greens, as if the rocks were shaping the light.” As the sun shifts, the dance between object and reflected or refracted colours intensifies and then fades, and the artist is faced with a choice: return to the studio and work from memory or come back to capture another passing moment.
This dilemma extends to portraiture, in particular during lockdown, in which live sittings were impossible, and the artist had to work from photographs. It was during this period that Dunipace chose to join a growing group of artists painting portraits for NHS heros. She chose a local nurse who had returned to the front line after 20 years away.
The face we see behind the mask is landscaped with the lines and expression of a person who has faced something vast and almost insurmountable – it is haunting, moving and deeply human. “I think many people felt a little helpless watching the sacrifices others were making at this time and this was something small I felt I could do. I was very honoured to be allowed to paint Wendy”
We observe in Dunipace’s work how the point of focus becomes a pattern: an essential, repeatable set of marks that defines someone or somewhere. Each painting has a specific topography, one that might be teased out into a series, but is anchored to this location. The space given to these areas of intense focus, loose gestures around the carefully latticed brushwork, allow the painting to breathe. It is there, on the threshold between representation and gesture, pattern and form, that we can see the artist’s signature brushwork, and how this might shift into abstraction. “Sometimes the pattern takes over, and the work becomes about the rhythmic interplay of form and the balance of colour. Maybe restricting the palette to say orange and blue, and the work moves away from representation into the realm of abstraction.”
N.K.E ~ 2021