Louis Rochon
Third Prize is a one-page editorial feature in American Art Collector magazine
My Inspiration
A global pandemic, financial crisis and long overdue racial protests for change fueled my desire to do, well, something, anything, but what? What could one person, one artist do? I could paint! I’ve decided to create a series of paintings, the AWAKENINGS SERIES, with a positive, light-hearted, intensely colorful and inspirational theme. Furthermore, I’ve committed to continue painting until there is a vaccine discovered and a more hopeful world emerges. There may be many paintings! I realize this is not a profound solution to the world’s problems, but in my own small way, I am offering a subtle reminder that spring will eventually return.
My Design Strategy
I pace for a while, then curl up in my overstuffed rocker, sketchbook in hand, watching the sun rise over Puget Sound.
With no lights on in my studio, doing my very best to meditate and pray for ideas, usually failing miserably, I pace some more. When I’m totally exhausted trying to make it happen, I take a pencil, walk over to a blank canvas, sit on a stool, and wait…for the design to be given to me, and it “always” does! I can’t answer this question any better than; how do you explain where the next brushstroke comes from? All I know is that my job, and it’s no easy matter, is to locate myself to the place in which the magic happens and then be open to all possibilities. The rest, is a blur and out comes a painting.
My Working Process
I’ve developed an intuitive painting technique that requires me to allow various elements to blend in ways that would be impossible for me to create by trying to control the outcome too much. Paintings reveal their most spectacular messages when I can participate with them in a real-time creative “dance” of sorts. I am there to gently nudge and encourage the movement of various medium elements to participate with each other. Some play well with each other and some don’t, but they will sort that out for themselves, on the dance floor. The flow never fails, as I will pull all of the various color elements together in the final, baton like symphony movements, with squeeze bottles filled with thick, jet black paint as I frantically fly around the canvas over a period of perhaps two to three minutes. As I said in the beginning—intuitive, magic!
Contact Details
Email: louierochon@outlook.com
Website: www.rochonfineart.com