GALLERY: Local artist inspired by island pubs

Thursday 14 April 2022

A local artist has been inspired to document Guernsey’s numerous pubs through her artwork and is now preparing for an exhibition.

Louise Le Pelley has been sketching the island’s watering holes since 2020 and said, “they are places that don’t seem to change”.

“In my spare time I do a lot of painting,” she said. “I went to the PF+A sketch club in 2020 and that group was all about going into town after work, on a Wednesday or Thursday, and looking at architectural buildings and structures.”

Pictured: Louise says she has painted more than twenty establishments and hopes to eventually document them all through her work.

Louise said she used the opportunity offered by PF+A, who held several events, to get out and about during the pandemic: “I couldn’t travel and it was a good way of rediscovering Guernsey,” she said.

“Every week I would always end up drawing or painting a pub. It became a bit of a running joke!” The group held an exhibition in 2020 and this inspired Louise to expand her work.

“I started working not in a sketch book anymore but on a bigger scale and going back and redoing the venues and it has become a passion project,” she said.

“I’ve gone to a lot of pubs, some of them don’t even exist anymore, I’ve been speaking to landlords and getting the history about the buildings.

“Pubs have a lot of character, they are places that don’t seem to change.”

Louise is holding an exhibition of her work at the Sausmarez Park Folk Museum on 17 May - 24 June.