November 2-17
Lower Commons
The Arts Committee invites you to enjoy paintings by Louise Hoffman Gallagher. Louise is married to Bob Gallagher, our Minister of Music.
Louise Hoffman Gallagher Biography
Louise Hoffman Gallagher was born in Ithan-Villanova, Pennsylvania. At a very young age, she studied oil painting with French artist, Marissa Mageotte, focusing on the style of realism through landscape and still life. As a teenager, Louise studied with American artist, Quita Broadhead, a student of Arthur Beecher Carles, a highly regarded American Modernist artist and teacher. Broadhead exhibited in Europe and the US throughout her life. Her use of color and her unique subject presentation were positive influences on Hoffman’s artistic development.
While pursuing a degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Louise studied studio art, concentrating on figure painting, still life, and drawing, using a variety of mediums including acrylics, oils, pastels, and pencil.
Today, Louise paints a variety of subject matter in oil, working primarily from photographs. Her paintings include a wide variety of subject matter. “My goal is to capture ‘a moment in time’ or a favorite image that touches on a memory which will preserved for this lifetime and those to come. Any meaningful or beloved image is a worthwhile reason to paint.”
In addition, Louise paints decorative images on wood and slate using acrylics and latex paints. After the wood is prepared, an image is carefully designed and painted. The piece is then varnished with several coats of polyacrylic or polyurethane to create a smooth, protective, and lasting finish. Commissions have included boxes of varying sizes for special occasions, trays, baby shower gifts, bridesmaid gifts, wood coasters and placemat sets, as well as home and bath furnishings. Any special design can be created, ranging from a likeness of a house, to matching a favorite rug or wallpaper, to painting a favorite collectibles or unique images, to monograms. Louise also paints decorative images on existing furniture.
Today Louise Hoffman Gallagher lives and paints in Richmond, VA.