Louise Farnay

Louise grew up on the vast 12,000km expanse of Western Australia�s pristine, turquoise- coloured Indian Ocean coastline. From her early childhood days, she spent a large amount of her time deeply immersed in the ocean, seeking escape from her own reality. �Water to me is ethereal. When I immerse myself in it, I find I can escape to my own solitude. It�s a sacred place to me, where I can seek refuge, where time stands still, I feel adrift, and all I hear and feel is the motion of the ocean all around me.� Louise�s detailed oil paintings beautifully encapsulate her close relationship with water in a exquisitely feminine way. Her paintings reveal a euphoric, dream-state state she experiences while submersed in it. Her detailed studies create a hyper-realistic likeness in relation to refraction and the interplay of light, reflection, distortion and illusion are so articulately painted, her feminine forms appear weightless in composition, almost outer-worldly in composition, while also representing the deep emotional connection, she experiences when escaping to this personal freedom. �Water provides me with inner peace. I am able to enter a calm deeply therapeutic, meditative state, as I lay afloat, peacefully listening to my own breath, connecting with nature. I swim, drift or dive in the calm of the ocean�s currents. I feel rejuvenated, drawing strength from the ocean and its numerous healing properties. Afloat in this beautiful realm, I feel freedom, inner peace and a great stillness that nowhere else can provide me. I connect with water on a very deep emotional level. I surrender to water.�