Louie Wade

My work explores paintings that feel transitional or unresolved, where the image appears to shift, overlap, or exist between different states rather than settling into a single fixed form. Increasingly, I have become interested in how different images can coexist within the same painting, appearing layered, interrupted, or partially obscured by one another.

My process often begins from either a photographic reference or a drawing. I am interested in how the images I choose to work from, and the way paint behaves in response to them, might reveal aspects of my emotional or subjective position. The subjects I am drawn to are often chosen instinctively, and I see this selection process as part of the work itself, exposing unconscious attachments, biases, or emotional responses before they are fully understood. Rather than attempting to predetermine meaning, I allow understanding to emerge retrospectively through the act of making.

As paintings develop, they may begin to suggest alternative narratives, figures, or forms, causing the image to shift away from its original reference or move between different visual states. At other times, remaining close to the source image becomes equally important, as it allows me to spend time with an image and reflect on my own assumptions or emotional responses to it. In both cases, painting becomes a way of tracing thought, instinct, and hesitation rather than arriving at a fully resolved outcome.