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Read the latest from Elle Pace, Studio Stories and Threads of Grace

What if the gold you’ve been looking for has been sitting right in front of you all along?

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Gold is Where You Find It Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   Gold is where you find it. Sometimes gold is obvious. Other times it is hidden among all the other colors and distractions of our lives. Looking at this horse painting again reminded me that perhaps we spend too much time searching for the spectacular while overlooking the quieter gifts already around us. A phone call. A familiar song. An unexpected kindness. A morning when your heart simply feels lighter. Maybe gold isn't always something we have to chase. Sometimes we just have to notice where God has already placed it.    Elle Pace Read the complete Threads of Grace story at EllePace.com.   GOOGLE/BLOGGER WORDS Laurie Pace, Elle Pace, Threads of Grace, Gold Is Where You Find It, horse painting, equine art, colorful horse painting, expressive horse painting, palette knife painting, contemporary equine art, blue ...
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How in life do you start at the end and arrive at the beginning? I have started over at the end of many things but after writing this blog, it gets twisted.

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Desert Sun Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   The End and then the Beginning “But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.” — Hebrews 1:2   Yesterday I shared how paint scraped from one unsuccessful painting became something entirely new. There was enough of that wonderful mess of reds, greens, turquoise, browns, gold and white to begin again. This time I returned to the original 30 × 40 canvas—the surface still stained by what had been there before. I began with what was left on the remaining canvas, still stained with original paint.   A single horse emerged at the center of four strong sections of light and dark. Only later did I begin seeing things I hadn't deliberately painted. A wolf, guitars, crosses....   And if you look long enough, perhaps you'll discover something...

Scraped paint becomes a luminous horse painting as artist Laurie Pace reflects on faith, creativity, finding light, and carrying hope into what comes next.

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Scrapping the Canvas Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   ALWAYS TOWARD THE LIGHT — Sometimes What Is Left Becomes the Beginning “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” — Psalm 84:11 When the sun rose today, I was ready with a happy heart. This painting began in an unlikely place—with paint scraped from another canvas. A large painting wasn't working, so I scraped the oil paint onto a board. My palette knife had mixed the colors into deep greens, ochres, browns and wonderful earthy tones. I had two 30 × 40 canvases waiting. The  one I just scrapped and another one.  No hesitation... I just painted. That scraped paint became two completely different paintings. 30 x 40 inches in size. Today I am sharing the first, Two from the Herd in the Sun. Tomorrow I will share the second. Look at th...

Setting up the lights in my large studio across the back side of our Lake House to paint at night was a challenge....the lake literally sparked with starlight.

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Starlight Run     Click photo above to see the painting. Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   When the Stars Were Out, I was still painting. Today an unexpected sale of an older horse painting sent me searching through old photographs. I found one that stopped me. There was Starlight Run on my easel in my studio at the lake. It was late at night. The stars were out, and I was still painting. I wasn't hesitant to paint there. I painted some of the largest paintings of my life in that studio. I knew how to begin. I drew my horses, mapped them across the canvas and established the structure before allowing color, line and movement to take me somewhere beyond what I had planned. Looking through the process photographs today helped me understand something I had forgotten. I wasn't searching for the horse. I was painting from him. The discovery came after the knowing. I knew the horse we...

When I look back across my life, you are still there. Sixty-three years, buttery crackers, one roller coaster—and a childhood sport called “Wagonning” that our mothers thankfully knew nothing about.

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 "A Friend is a friend forever" Song by  Michael W. Smith When I Look Back Across My Life, You Are Still There Some friendships begin before we have any idea who we're going to become. Mine began at Lake Highlands Junior High School more than sixty years ago. We knew each other's families, houses, dreams—and occasionally far too much about each other's childhood adventures. My best girlfriend was Janet—J.J. to me. She loved the buttery crackers my mother kept at our house, and together we invented something we called Wagonning. We had baby brothers about eleven or twelve years younger than we were. When we decided they were sufficiently sturdy, we put them in red wagons, climbed in behind them and raced down one of our steep Lake Highlands hills. The objective? Try not to kill our baby brothers. They loved it. Our mothers never knew. Sixty-three years later, I could probably say one word to J.J.—Wagonning—and she ...

Life continually asks us to step up—to a challenge, a change, a new season, or simply something we aren't sure we can do.

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Red Shoed Pony Dancing Till Dawn Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   Sometimes you don't know you need red shoes until you start dancing... Life continually asks us to step up—to a challenge, a change, a new season, or simply something we aren't sure we can do. Right now, my challenge is waiting at my easel. That reminded me of Red Shoed Pony — Dancing Till Dawn, a painting that didn't begin with a horse at all. It began with colors mixing into greens, golds and murky browns. I began carving through the paint until a horse appeared. She wasn't working, so I kept going. Then I noticed the red near her feet. She needed red shoes. And once she had red shoes, I knew she needed someone watching her dance. That's how the second horse arrived. Life has seasons for growing, serving, grieving, waiting—and sometimes simply moving forward. When you feel tired or discouraged, perhaps re...

For ten years I had the title of this painting spelled wrong. On the Lamb. There are no lambs in this painting. 😂

There are seven in the full painting... see it on my website blog.  Link below.   © Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 On the Lam Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   ON THE LAM — And Apparently I’ve Been There Too For ten years I had the title of this painting spelled wrong. On the Lamb. There are no lambs in this painting. 😂 What I meant was On the Lam—running away, escaping, avoiding something. That little discovery sent my brain racing almost as quickly as the horses in the painting. For the past several years, I have struggled with something I never expected: losing confidence behind the wheel. After losing a car I loved, I went through several vehicles that simply never felt right. Eventually I found myself driving less and less. Seven weeks ago, that finally changed. I found a vehicle that feels right to me. This morning I drove Hubby and me home from Costco while my passenger played chess on h...