Laurie Pace - Fine Artist

Why I Rarely Use Red Until Now For years, I avoided painting with red. Red is not a casual color. In art, red carries meaning — passion, sacrifice, courage, and redemption. It is bold. It demands attention. And when used poorly, it can overwhelm a composition. © Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Red Tulip Kiss Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   Recently, while researching red tulip meaning, I discovered how layered this color truly is. Red tulips traditionally symbolize deep love and devotion.  During the Ottoman Empire, the red tulip represented wealth, refinement, and even national pride. Fallen soldiers were honored with red tulips placed on their graves — a symbol of sacrifice and courage. In biblical symbolism, red appears repeatedly.  It represents blood, covenant, sin, sacrifice, and ultimately redemption. The color is never decorative in Scripture — it is declarative. As an oil painter, I approach red caref...

Night Descent The painting on my easel is of white horses descending a snowy mountain at night.   How many horses can you find? © Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Night Descent from Snowy Mountain Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   The painting on my easel is of white horses descending a snowy mountain at night. The word descent often sounds negative in today’s world — as if moving downward means failure. Yet in life and in art, descent can mark the beginning of deeper growth. Any journey requires both ascent and descent. There have been seasons in my own life that felt like stepping backward before moving forward. Faith reminds me that God is present in both directions. Surrender is difficult, but letting go often clears the way for something stronger to rise. In the studio, I paint with a palette knife, moving thick oil paint across the canvas and allowing the work to evolve. The horses descend, but they are still in...

From Cupcakes to Flowers — Lady L’s Early Paintings © Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Blue Iris Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Lady L The  Every artist has a beginning. Lady L’s first painting was pink Hostess cupcakes — sweet, round, joyful — inspired by her mother, lovingly nicknamed “CupCake.” From eighteen months on, she was already learning process in the kitchen: measuring, mixing, waiting, finishing. She was taught the correct steps from the beginning. Her second painting was a flower, the one at the top of this blog — what I believe was meant to be an iris. We began with a small sketch in her notebook. Then she studied the bloom carefully before drawing it directly onto the canvas, adjusting proportion by instinct. She rotated the canvas to reach the edges. She looked for balance. She looked for light. This flower painting was the first to sell — for $250. Cupcakes were joy. The flower revealed design recognition. ...

The  Running Colors After the Rain There are pieces of life that quietly find their way into our paintings. © Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Running Colors After the Rain Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   Running Colors After the Rain holds many of them — a bright raincoat, chalk drawings on pavement, a blue flower painted by small hands, afternoons in the studio, and a love of horses passed from one generation to the next. She began painting at eighteen months old. Her very first piece sold for $250. She painted constantly — bold, instinctive, fearless with color. In this 3 x 4 ft oil, the horse is not separate from the child. It rises around her, becoming strength, imagination, and shared love. If you look closely, you’ll see her chalk house and the blue flower she once painted — small details woven into the surface. I thought I would keep this painting forever. This is my Granddaughter at a young age marveling at ...

The Textures in Our Lives  In the studio a few weeks ago, I finished a small palette knife painting built with thick, directional strokes of oil paint. The paint rises from the panel. It catches light. It shifts as you move around it.   It is not smooth. It is alive. © Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Colors of the Sky Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   Yesterday, driving home beneath clearing storm clouds, I was struck again by contrast. The deep blue sky stretched wide and quiet — almost flat in its purity. But the clouds were sculptural mounds of white tinged with gray, layered and dimensional. They looked textured. Yet if we touched them, there would be nothing to hold.  That tension fascinates me. I love texture. Not just in painting — but in life. The softness of rose petals against the jagged rocks surrounding the garden beds. The grit of sand. The strength of mountain stone. The s...

A Texas Longhorn Painted in Layers I’m featuring today a commissioned Texas Longhorn painting created for a collector in Dallas.  © Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 LONGHORN Commission  by Laurie Pace   The project began with an in-home visit where we discussed scale, placement, and the role the artwork would play among his collection of original art.  He had an amazing collection of art!  After measuring the space and finalizing the size, the journey continued back to my studio in East Texas. The painting developed slowly through layers of bold color applied with a palette knife. Depth, light, and contrast emerged as colors crossed and built upon one another. Throughout the process, I shared progress photos so the client could follow the evolution of the Longhorn from sketch to finished canvas. Midway through the process, the client surprised me by visiting the studio to see the work in person. Watching hi...