‘Non-Fungible Reality’, oil and acrylic on birch panel, 90x90cm (100x100cm with frame)
This piece took over 100 hours to paint and has many layers of meaning. It’s depicts a stunning endangered Clouded Leopard, in. A cloudscape which is partly a play on its name and partly to do with this elusive cat’s ethereal beauty. It touches upon the Rukai legend of the clouded leopard who led a hunter-warrior and its people through the mountains – a place commonly associated with ghosts and other spirits – to the region that would become their homeland. Symbolically this cat is often seen as a spirit guide as it’s a cat that mainly lives up high in the trees and avoids human contact at all costs. There are supernatural touches to this piece, with the fractal sky and the subtle glow around the cat to hint at other realms and dimensions…
Louise‘s creations feature nature, animals, and the celestial realm in glorious, blazing neon hues, where the animals are God-like, Sublime and ethereal in their luminescence. Not wishing to limit herself or her subject matter, McNaught has a mixed-media approach which usually manifests in painted-drawings on traditional and sometimes unusual supports, such as celestial maps. Her soft style suggests a delicate relationship between nature and ourselves, making a clear point about man's destruction of nature - which flutters jewel-like in the balance.