Louis Turpin for Art on a Ukulele

Born in post-war London, the son of artists living in Brixton. On leaving school Louis Turpin studied Architecture before changing direction and going to art school. The last half of his Fine Art painting course was spent film-making and, on graduation, he became involved in film work in London.

In 1975, Louis began to concentrate on painting and, in an intense three-month period of work, he moved from abstraction to figuration. The hop garden outside his cottage was the pathway through to figurative painting.  In 1985, inspired by Vita Sackville-West’ s garden at Sissinghurst he embarked upon a continuing series of British garden paintings. This year also saw the start of a series of very successful one-man shows throughout the UK, and latterly in the USA.

During this period he also continued to paint his distinctive portraits as shown at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and at international contemporary art fairs. His work has featured in several publications including Anthony Huxley’ s ‘ The Painted Garden’ .

In 1993, Louis was invited to exhibit in York in conjunction with the National Garden Scheme. This was the first of a series of National Garden Scheme exhibitions around the country, including a one-man show in Henley which was the subject of a major article in the Sunday Times ‘ Classic’  magazine. In 1996, Louis completed several commissions to produce paintings for hotels including a suite of paintings for the Bedruthen Steps Hotel, Cornwall.

He has long been established as one of Britain's leading horticultural artists. Working in oils, he starts with a brightly coloured semi-abstract ground over which he builds the image in patches. This creates a tapestry-like effect, which suits the Victorian-gothic character of many of the gardens he paints, where rather than standing back to view a grand design, the viewer is overwhelmed by a barrage of subtly differentiated colours and textures. And it's clear he sees the gardeners who create them as kindred spirits, who are in effect painting with plants.

We are very proud to present his Ukulele. A completely unique design by a contemporary master in painting.