Lou Jordan lives in the middle of New Orleans, but she can walk out her back door 20 feet to Bayou St. John and watch fish jumping, puffy white clouds reflected in mirror-still waters, and an endless array of spectacular and inspiring sunsets - abstracts of sky and water. This is what she paints: luminous veils of transparent watercolor, the velvet night-sky over the bayou, bridges which are metaphors, moods of peaceful reverie that she treasures in her Bayou.  She also paints the New Orleans spirit of fun: funky jazzy collages and brilliant acrylic canvases full of color and geometry, all done in time to disco and rock and roll!  A teacher, workshop presenter, art-show judge, she has sold over 300 paintings in the past ten years from her Bancroft home and gallery.

She and her husband courageously stayed in their adopted home, New Orleans, following the flood that inundated the city after Hurricane Katrina. For the past two years she has used her creative talents to rebuild their home and her studio/apartments which sat for three weeks in a bath of lake water. And although her home and studio suffered major damage, by a major miracle none of her paintings were damaged.

She is now, in the fall of 2007, able to return to art, and is currently working on a series of Bayou St. John paintings featuring the four mile long body of water in the center of New Orleans, its many different neighborhoods, live oaks and fascinating architecture.

Education:
   Smith College, Northampton, MA majoring in Fine Arts
   The Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA: instructed by
        Joe Mayer, Marj Alderson
   New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts: Ausaklis Ozols,         Kaitlin Gergo,Carol Peebles
   Primary teachers: Milford Zornes N.A., Jack Beal, Sondra Freckelton, Jeanne Dobie, Stephen Quiller, Cheng Khee Chee, Catherine Anderson, John Salminen, Katharine Chang Liu, and Skip Lawrence

Career Highlights:
Selected Awards and Recognition

o   Signature Member, Louisiana Watercolor Society  2001
o   President, Louisiana Watercolor Society 1999-2001
o   Featured in International Artist Publications book, "100 Ways to Paint  Flowers and Gardens" 2004
o   Featured in "Gulf Coast Arts Review"  "Madame President" 2000
o   First Prize Louisiana Watercolor Society Member Show 1996
o   First Prize Louisiana Watercolor Society Member Show 1999
o  Second Prize Louisiana Watercolor Society Member Show 2002
o  New Orleans Academy of Arts Faculty Award for Watercolor 2002

Solo Shows
o  Cafe Degas, New Orleans, 2002
o The Long Gallery, Oschner Hospital, New Orleans  2000, 2002
o  St. Tammany Art Association Holiday Inn Covington, LA 2001
o  The Upstairs Gallery, Bay St. Louis, MS 2001

Selected Juried Shows
o  Louisiana Watercolor Society International Juried Exhibition 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005
o  Gulf Coast Art Exhibit for Women in the Arts 2005
o  Ohr Museum Juried Exhibit, Biloxi, MS 2000
o  New Orleans Art Association National Exhibit 1997
o  Masur Museum Juried Show, Monroe, LA 1997

Galleries
o  The Upstairs Gallery, Bay St. Louis, MS
o  Lagniappe Gallery, Cottonwood, MS
o  Bancroft Studio Gallery, New Orleans
o  Studio Angelico, New Orleans