Bright Ink, Big Cottages - The Art of Louis Poole
Roy Proctor turns his attention to one of my favorite Richmond artists in today's Times-Dispatch. I'd began noticing Louis Poole's bright, over-sized and abstract takes on individual houses and cottages several years ago. His latest batch of work is currently on display at the Page Bond Gallery, alongside the more abstract renderings of L.A. artist Curtis Ripley. (The show closes on May 31.)
It all started, Proctor says, with a pink stucco house that caught Poole's attention:
"When I came out of VCU, I was doing large, color-field, gestural abstract paintings," he says. "I had been indoctrinated in VCU's abstract formalism. Now I had to figure out: Was there any way I could paint that house in an abstract manner?"
The answer was a resounding yes, and that's what "Structure: Louis Poole" is all about.
"A house provides abstract geometry, but it has a human context, too," Poole says. "After a while, I didn't worry about abstraction anymore."
Poole essentially takes somewhat staid structures and breathes new life into them with his brushes:
"I try to make the images compelling," he says. "If viewers think they're haunting, too, I don't have a problem with that.
"To me, these paintings have an air of an existential encounter between the viewer and the image. I see an intense reality that verges on unreality here."
Fellow Richmond painter Diego Sanchez, one of Poole's biggest fans, would agree.
"Louis' work is special because of the loose, descriptive, gestural way he handles paint," Sanchez says. "Everything he puts on his canvas is essential to define the form. I like his highly saturated palette, which makes his structures dynamic and bold."
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