Laurie Pace - Fine Artist

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The colors tumble across the canvas like someone emptied the entire candy store onto my palette!

© Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026 Sun Blaze Oil on Canvas SOLD by Laurie Pace SUN BLAZE — A Birthday and a Candy Store! GOOD MORNING TO YOU!!! ☀️❤️🎨 Today one of my grandsons turns ELEVEN! Red hair, beautiful blue eyes, and a love for the little candy store in our town. Oh, that candy store! Bright colors, sugary treats, ice cream, and POP! LOL! Looking at my newest painting, SUN BLAZE, I couldn't help thinking about him. This 24 × 24 palette knife oil painting is bursting with orange, yellow, turquoise, pink, purple, and blue. The colors tumble across the canvas like someone emptied the entire candy store onto my palette! And there's a horse in the middle of it all. The orange reminds me of his red hair, and those brilliant blues bring his eyes to mind. I didn't paint SUN BLAZE as his portrait, but today it feels like the perfect painting to celebrate him. There's something wonderful about the way children experience co...

The flowers seemed to float across the canvas. They were delicate, almost fragile, and I loved the softness of those first layers.

© Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026 The Gathering Oil on Canvas SOLD by Laurie Pace 🌸 The Gathering of the Flowers When a Painting Needs Time to Bloom By Laurie Pace | Elle Pace Sometimes a painting needs time to become what it was meant to be. I began The Gathering, a 30 × 40 oil painting, with a white canvas and the softest touches of pink, lavender, blue, and green. The flowers seemed to float across the canvas. They were delicate, almost fragile, and I loved the softness of those first layers. But something told me the painting wasn't finished. So I set it aside. For nearly two months, those flowers waited in my studio while I wrestled with whether to leave them alone or continue painting. When I finally returned the canvas to my easel, I prayed that I could preserve their delicate beginnings. I began introducing blues and soft purples, building color gradually, layer upon layer. And then something beau...

Beneath the layers of paint, I wrote words that would eventually disappear:

© Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026 Follow the Love Oil on Canvas SOLD by Laurie Pace What if a painting could tell your family's story without showing a single face? Years ago, a collector commissioned Follow the Way of Love, a colorful equine painting in which the horses represented members of her family. She already owned several of my paintings, but this one carried a particularly personal meaning. Beneath the layers of paint, I wrote words that would eventually disappear: Follow the way of love. Today, the painting hangs above her fireplace—a daily reminder of the family it represents. Sometimes the most meaningful portraits aren't portraits at all. Read the complete story and see the painting's progression at Threads of Grace. Laurie Pace | Elle Pace Google photos: Finished painting and hidden words. Blogger labels: Laurie Pace, Elle Pace, Threads of Grace, Follow the Way of Love, horse painting,...

Perhaps one of the hardest lessons an artist learns is knowing when the painting has said enough.

© Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026 First Flowers Oil on Canvas SOLD by Laurie Pace The Painting I Should Have Left Alone Looking through photographs of my painting Fair Flowers, I discovered something about myself as an artist. The finished painting was beautiful, and it sold. But as I studied the photographs of its progression, I realized I loved an earlier version even more. The flowers were merely suggestions. Colors mingled, edges disappeared, and the viewer was free to imagine the blossoms rather than have every petal explained. But I kept painting. I added definition, contrast, and detail until the bouquet was complete. Today, I find myself drawn back to that earlier moment when the painting was softer, quieter, and full of possibilities. Perhaps one of the hardest lessons an artist learns is knowing when the painting has said enough. I want to paint another bouquet soon. And this time, I hope I'll re...

It was too late. I had begun layering new colors over a painting of my heart. She was gone and there was no turning back.

© Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026 Juxtapose Oil on Canvas SOLD by Laurie Pace Two Days Too Late — The Painting I Wish I Had Kept I loved that painting. It was called Juxtapose, an expressive figurative painting filled with color, movement, and exaggerated forms. It was supposed to go to a gallery in La Jolla, California, before COVID changed everything. But the gallery decided the painting wasn't workable at the time, so I never sent it. BUT... I had a commission waiting, and the canvas was exactly the size I needed. So I began painting over Juxtapose. Two days later, the telephone rang. It was the gallery in La Jolla. She had a buyer for my painting! But by then, I had already begun merging colors over the figures. The painting she wanted was disappearing beneath the beginnings of a commissioned horse painting. There was no going back. The canvas eventually became 'Two Together Always'...

The painting felt heavy. Nothing flowed. The horses seemed awkward rather than natural. Somewhere along the way, I had painted the life right out of them.

© Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026 GRAZING Oil on Canvas SOLD by Laurie Pace Sometimes You Have to Destroy It to Find It I had five horses on my canvas. The bottom layer was just a clean space place the horse layer for me to begin to visualize my direction. As I painted, the colors were brighter, the paint was thicker, and I had spent hours working on them. But something was wrong. The painting felt heavy. Nothing flowed. The horses seemed awkward rather than natural. Somewhere along the way, I had painted the life right out of them. Adding more paint wasn't going to fix it. I needed to take something away. So I began painting back into the horses, changing passages I had already worked so hard to create. There was no guarantee I would improve the painting. But I knew I couldn't leave it the way it was. Hesitantly movement returned. The heavy passages blended out. The colors began working together ins...

The Sun will come out...tomorrow. God will create every tomorrow you have. Stop worrying about it and live your life for Him.

© Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026 What Tomorrow May Bring Commission Oil on Canvas SOLD by Laurie Pace Who Invented Tomorrow? Laurie & Gracie | Threads of Grace Yesterday, I shared a painting of a little girl standing at the edge of the ocean, looking toward a horizon she couldn't see beyond. I called it The Tomorrows. My friend Gracie and I were discussing the painting and Ecclesiastes 3:11, my thoughts suddenly my brain wandered to the musical Annie. I said: “Wasn't it Annie who sang about loving tomorrow? but... God Creates it.” Gracie: “Annie may have sung about tomorrow, but yep, God invented it.” And suddenly, there it was. We didn't invent tomorrow. God did. Think about how much of our lives we spend preparing for tomorrow. We plan for it, worry about it, and sometimes wish it would hurry up and arrive. Yet none of us has ever created a single tomorrow. And tomorrow isn't a promise ...