Louise De Buck in Depth About her Paintings, Life, Motivation & More

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Louise De Buck is based in Brussels at the moment but as she puts it herself: “Who knows what the future will look like for me.” She studied art at the Beaux-Arts in Namur before moving back to Brussels in 2003, and studied for 3 years at L’Erg. Louise is a lover of images and musical journeys; “This curiosity has always been in me. It has shaped me into who I am, from childhood to now!”

Through her paintings she continuously explore through textures with acrylic and oils, and the story she tries to tell through her paintings has many layers; old school movies, serie B movies and simple memories of happy or sad moments in her life.

Louise is passionate about expressing her feminism and vison of injustice for women in this world in her own way, and what she enjoys the most is to paint a scene that puts women in all their naked glory and intriguing mysterious beauty.

I love expressing my power and feminism that way, knowing that its very unconventional. The impact my friends and family have had in my life is the foundation of my inspiration and so vital to my well-being as an artist and human being. I also find my inspiration in post-apocalyptic films from the 80’s and 90’s and in horror and mysterious movie soundtracks. As well as my traveling adventures that help me grow into who I know I’m supposed to be!
– Louise De Buck

Hi Louise, It’s a pleasure to sit down with you. Here is my first question that I always ask. How does a regular day look like for you in Brussels?

It really depends on my mood and my energy but it oscillates between having lunch with friends to be able to chat a little, doing my administrative work and painting while listening to interesting conferences, when I paint I am very attentive and able to print information in my brain so I take the opportunity to educate myself.

What is your earliest memory of you creating something? And at what age did you start to paint?

I remember starting to draw like all children very early and just going on, but I really started painting with acrylics at 16. And it was my fine arts color teacher who really initiated me and passed on this passion.

I read somewhere that you were the host of “Party Noise” on MTV. And that you went on to form a group until 2016. Talk to me a little bit about that time in your life.

Actually my first job was veejay, I hosted mini shows where I interviewed artists in festivals and I did little stagings with the public in Belgium, it was very funny, then I launched a group with another girl called The Lizzies, it was electronic pop music, I really liked the creation part in the studio but the scene was not for me I did not feel comfortable with it this world of music, plastic art suits me much better, it’s more solitary and it still allows me to express myself so I’m happier like that.

The colors, the retro vibes, the motifs. Your paintings are heavily inspired by the 80s and 90s. What is it about those eras that intrigues you?

Because it is the time of my childhood and my adolescence, so a very significant moment in life, it never really leaves you, then I really appreciate the aesthetics of this moment, the style of cinema, the music. The fact that it was a more reassuring period in Europe than now, the VHS, the walkman, all the beginning of these 90s technologies had a lot of charm I find. Today it has evolved towards something almost scary, and it doesn’t necessarily have to. There were no social networks, the women on the screen were not all redone, there was something more real and natural. A kind of purity in my eyes that I surely try to transcribe in my paintings.

What is the process like when creating one of your paintings? Do you already have an idea in your head? Or do you just start on a canvas and then go with the flow?

Before starting to paint I think for days or even weeks about a story that I would like to tell in series of several paintings, I always make montages of photos that I take or collages before to have more or less an idea of the final result, I like to know where I’m going in terms of composition, color, atmosphere and sense of image, I leave little to chance improvisation, even if from time to time I change certain details along the way. But I always have a very clear intention beforehand.

Staying on that subject. Women are well represented in your pieces. Who are they and what do they represent?

It’s nobody in particular, it’s a kind of representation of all women even if the aspect looks like me physically I don’t voluntarily try to paint myself, but I imagine that often I fall back into this style because painting is a therapy and that we expel very personal things through it.

What do you hope that we the observers get out of your paintings?

Honestly the most important thing for me is the emotion, to feel something humanly touching, so I hope to succeed in conveying it through the very narrative images that I make.

What motivates you? And what are your favorite places to go to get inspired?

Motivation is not something constant, sometimes I lose it, but when people talk to me about my painting and tell me how much they feel connected to it, it gives me shots of motivation to continue. Seeing the finality of a painting that I started weeks before also motivates me. And any place can inspire me, I can have clicks in a metro, at the sea, while walking in the street, I suddenly have kind of flashes and I know what I want to do. to tell about. For the moment my source of inspiration does not dry up

You have traveled quite a bit. So far what has been the most enriching travel experience and why?

The most exotic places I have visited are Indonesia, India and Portland, and in these three different places I lived human experiences and saw things that brought me a lot of relativism in relation to my “privileged” situation in Belgium. I draw a lot from every movement I spend outside my country anyway, I think it’s really important to move and see how people live elsewhere, feed on visions of other landscapes.

You studied art at the Beaux-Arts. Do you remember when you knew that you wanted to become an artist?

Honestly, I always knew that I had an artistic sensibility and that I would find myself in this sector one way or another.

Staying on the subject. You are one of the few artists in this world who are able to work and live off your paintings. That must be an incredible feeling. What brought you to this place in your life? Are there any specific moments or paintings that catapulted you to where you are now?

I actually still had a food job a few years ago, and one day I just decided to take the risk of trying to just paint and channel all my energy into it and it ended up paying off. Don’t really know why, maybe as my approach is sincere, people feel it. I sometimes have moments of stress but I am really happy to do what I love every day and to persevere.