Kiara Louwerse, a University of the Fraser Valley fourth-year Bachelor of Fine Arts student, found a key to building a foundation as an artist early in life. Her commitment to learning from, and assisting, other local established artists has offered opportunities for Louwerse to exhibit her own art.
“There’s always a really great community that comes out of art practice,” Louwerse said as she attributed her ability to connect with local artists and build community to her strong family connections and local Dutch heritage.
Louwerse started art early, with her parents enrolling her in private art lessons with local artist, John LeFlock, when she was in elementary school, and later with Langley based artist, Sheila Rae Van Delft. However, her exposure to the art world started even earlier with both sides of her family containing a variety of practicing artists.
Louwerse’s The artist’s mother is a writer and comes from a very musically inclined family. She credits her mother with teaching her how to research and appreciate the value of investigating any topic or subject to more fully understand how she will express it.
With a cousin completing the BFA program at UFV in 2014, Louwerse had an idea of what to expect. She chose the School of Creative Arts (SoCA) and her art-focused path when she reached UFV in 2019.
Louwerse draws inspiration from many areas of her life. She enjoys the outdoors, hiking, and believes being outside has made landscape painting a focus of her art practice. Certainly, having art teachers and university professors who paint natural settings helps.
“Chris Friesen [UFV painting instructor] has been a big influence on me. His courses have really pushed me, and he can be very technical with his students and this has inspired me to grow as an artist. His painting style and landscapes create very bright pieces and I like that.
“Also, you can’t paint landscapes in Canada without being influenced by the Group of Seven.”
Canada’s famous Group of Seven were landscape painters from 1920 to 1933 who believed that “a distinct Canadian art could be developed through direct contact with nature.” The group received worldwide fame by the mid-1930s, but were succeeded by a new collective, the Canadian Group of Painters. Both groups are considered a main influence in Canadian landscape painting.
Erin Hanson, a California-based artist who created a contemporary form of painting called Open Impressionism, has also been a big influence on Louwerse. She likes the loose and expressive manner of Hanson’s style.
“[Hanson] makes beautiful, large-scale, landscape impasto oil paintings which have really inspired me to try the same. I did this type of painting for my end of summer exhibition I shared with Toni Carlson [UFV graduate] that was on display in SoCA throughout September.”
All of these artistic influences have inspired Louwerse to commit herself to stepping into the world of online art exhibition.
“I’ve been encouraged to start an art Instagram account. Chris Friesen really pushed that through the professional practices portion of school. It was all very new, and a little scary, putting myself out there.”
Louwerse is learning to combine her art practices with life, family, and work commitments. She’s found having a dedicated space to work (as part of the Senior Studio courses at UFV) where she can research, plan and produce on her own schedule and time is beneficial.
“I’m learning to find time for my art practice so I can just plug-in with music and paint. I have opportunities to volunteer and job shadow one of my painting teachers where I can take the chance to learn and grow as an artist. I’d like to do the PDP [teacher education program] and become a teacher. Also, I’d like to apply to some galleries to have my pieces included in their exhibitions.”
Steve is a third-year BFA creative writing/visual arts student who’s been a contributing writer, staff writer and now an editor at The Cascade. He's always found stories and adventures but now has the joy of capturing and reporting them.
