Artist Info

Best known for large, abstract landscapes, artist and naturalist Michelle Louis has exhibited in group and solo shows worldwide. Her work is held in private, corporate, and public collections in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to art collectors, she's sold work to designers and consultants worldwide for projects large and small.

Trained in studio art, landscape architecture, and graphic design, Michelle Louis works full-time as a painter in Middleton, Wisconsin, USA. Her studio extends to her yard, where she nurtures an edible landscape.

As artist and naturalist, I am curious about how I experience the land that surrounds me, how I feel it deep in my bones, how to express that relationship, and what I can learn from it. Opportunities to live, work, and study in rainforests from Mexico to the Bolivian Amazon have profoundly influenced my perspective. At home in Wisconsin, walking in wild places every day gives form to a living palette ready for my brush.
Abstract expressionist in process, each brushstroke nudges the next to document dynamic and emotional qualities of place, cultivating a sense of awareness and connection. Revealing what I see and feel in the land honors my kinship to the natural world.

In the News-
Trout Museum of Art, Secura Exhibition and audio
Read an interview with artist Michelle Louis at Arts Business Institute.
"Finding Inspiration from the Female Creative Eye," by Maile Hulihan.
Craftwhack blog on Michelle Louis and The Other Art Fair.

Artist and naturalist Michelle Louis leaves the trail to observe a colony of leaf cutter ants. Amazon Basin, Bolivia. Photo by Alex Bauch.

Using profits from the sale of her art, Michelle Louis purchases and coordinates donations of science and nature books in Spanish and assures their delivery to schools and community libraries in Latin America. Photo by Patricia Luchsinger.