Louise Minks: Paintings, Ceramic Tiles, and Wood Products

"I have three passions in my life: art, history and spiritual growth. I find they complement each other well and each affects how I approach the other." Louise Minks has lived and painted in the small rural town of Leverett in Western Massachusetts for twenty-five years. Her colorful expressionistic oils and acrylics often focus on local scenes in the Connecticut River valley or along the Massachusetts seacoast just hours from her home. Framed prints of Louise's paintings of Massachusetts are available at Massachusetts Bay Trading Co. Twenty of her paintings of Massachusetts scenes and several from around the country have been combined into a wonderful screensaver. She has created a line of office and home accessories including a tool holder that features her works.

The artist describes her "art school" as museums, books, gallery shows, and her fellow artists. Besides working with landscape painters George Cherepov and Charles Movalli, Louise has studied portraiture and developed figurative paintings around a theme. Her M. A. degree in American History has prompted Louise to develop several series of historical paintings that tour to educational and cultural institutions.

Louise's works can be viewed in her studio at Leverett Crafts and Arts in an historic building in Leverett Center, Massachusetts, as well as in twelve galleries around the world. She was Artist in Residence at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and has also been Artist in Residence at the Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, NM, as well as at many public and private schools over the past ten years. Louise is a member of the prestigious National Association of Women Artists and the author of The Hudson River School, America's First Landscape Painters. She was commissioned to paint the 2001 replica of the sailing ship, Friendship", in historic Salem Harbor for the 350th anniversary of Salem, Massachusetts.