Louis-Gabriel Gosselin

Louis-Gabriel Gosselin, whose pseudonym is LOUG, is a visual artist deeply committed to an original and sensitive creative process.

For several decades, through a constant practice of drawing and painting, LOUG has developed a visual language of great poetry. His work, essentially figurative, draws from the anthropomorphic bestiary he has built and continually enriches. In his pictorial universe, magical animals evoke humans filled with emotion, while dreamy humans recall the animal world. All cycles of life intertwine in a colorful narrative.

Working in small and medium formats, square or rectangular, LOUG creates a pictorial space whose background sometimes evokes a starry sky, sometimes a magical constellation. In the foreground, hybrid characters wander joyfully through a unique imaginary landscape.

The artist’s sources of inspiration are multiple: fairy tales, comic books, the fantasy world, the realm of performance and circus arts, as well as framings and close-ups borrowed from cinema—an art form that has always fascinated Louis-Gabriel.

His work, tinged with a certain melancholy in its early years, gradually became radiant and luminous. The geometric architectures (2000–2015) dissolved, giving way to compositions dominated by curves and sinuous lines.

The draftsman and the painter respond to each other in his approach and in his choice of mediums. A wide range of pencils and pastels allows LOUG to work with line, contour, texture, and stroke. Drawing energizes and makes the tawny colors vibrate. Reds, blues, greens, oranges, as well as purples and pinks, compose a festive and inspiring symphony.

This body of work is a source of joy for all those fortunate enough to enter LOUG’s world.

“Painting is important to me; it’s how I express myself.” – Louis-Gabriel

In just a few words, Louis-Gabriel has said the essential. He expresses what gives meaning to his life as a man and as an artist: his practice as a painter.