Laurie Pace - Fine Artist

Red Ribbon Lacing 20 x 30 inches  Mixed Media on Canvas Still in progress I think. I keep working on it and stepping back and working on it more. It reminds me of my niece.       Contact me if you are interested in Red Ribbon Lacing. Laurie   © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011 On the way to church yesterday we were hurtling down the back country roads viewing land around us still void of leaves with spring just beginning to arrive.  I noticed a house off to my right I had never seen before.  It was built facing to the sides so the front and back were not in view of the road. I could see a nice pond in the back and the house was high up from the pond with a beautiful deck. There were stairs down to the pond... LOTS of stairs.  The house was immaculate and so beautiful nestled in the cove of trees about 300 yards off the road in a slight valley.  Wonder who lives there? We turned onto Hwy 115 and the...

Horsing Around 1 7.5 x 5 inches  Oil on 300 lb Watercolor Paper   BID HERE Contact me for your own painting. Laurie    © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011 PROTECTED from myself. Yesterday I did not work on the two little girls. I got up Saturday morning with the intention of spending about two hours on the computer and getting my body outside to work in the yard. When Terry didn't get up, I got tangled further in the www.artistsoftexas.blogspot.com redoing some of the content and the next thing I knew it was almost 11:30 am. I spent the next hour kicking myself for allowing that  to happen. I hate wasting time inside on the computer when I could be outside taking in God's glory.   I spent about an hour with the cloud hanging over me, feeling discouraged and disappointed in myself.  I gradually begin talking to myself to recenter and find my spot with God. I had the mind's eye thought that I could successfully...

Progression on A Walk in the Garden with Him 3 ft by 4 ft  Oil on Canvas     Sold Commission   Contact me for your own painting. Laurie   © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011 PRAYING FOR OTHERS One of the most joyous gifts of painting commission work is the spiritual connection you develop with the new collector.  You truly begin to learn more about them and as you paint and share comments; a small relationship begins to bud.  I love this part of the gift as it allows me to connect with both God and the collector.   I pray deeply before starting  a painting and always before I work on it, sometimes during and always as I am finishing up. This commission piece I am doing honors the life of a woman lost from cancer to her husband and family.   The husband has shared so much of her "fast progressing journey" with cancer as well as how grounded she was in God. Her faith was strong and her love f...

Progression on A Walk at Sunrise in His Garden 3 ft by 4 ft  Oil on Canvas       SOLD Commission Contact me for your own painting. Laurie    © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011  Layer by Layer. As I progress with this painting I end up layering the paint, building up both texture and value depth through the glazing of translucent colors mixing with vibrant under-laid colors. Tomorrow I will start on the girls and I am excited. Isn't life like that? Layer on Layer? I do not even want to think of how many layers I have over my lifetime.  Every day we probably add a hundred layers or more in experience and growth. Each of us should be quite dimensional by now.  Sometimes like in painting, you may be tempted to use a cover layer to hide a mistake. In art and painting there are no mistakes, just creativity. In living and believing in God as the main source of all, there are no mistakes there ei...

Progression on A Walk at Sunrise in His Garden      3 ft by 4 ft  Oil on Canvas     SOLD COMMISSION   Contact me for your own painting. Laurie    © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011 I made more progress on the girls in the garden painting. Terry came in and took a picture as I working in the far left lower corner. I had just finished the rock wall behind the bench and was putting in shadows behind the girls. This painting definitely makes me look forward to spring planting and the flowers coming up in the back yard. Nature's Beauty The earth is blessed with the beginning of Spring. Debbie Lincoln put on facebook yesterday that she had early signs of bluebonnets in her yard. That is the Texas State Flower.. they are a sign of spring here in the Lone Star State. Reaching out past the boundaries of the small town we live in, the rest of the state has the lower part of the Rocky Mountains, Big ...

Progression on "A Morning Walk in His Garden" 3 ft by 4 ft  Oil on Canvas       SOLD Commission Painting Contact me for your own painting. Laurie    © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011  GRATITUDE OPENS THE HEART Gratitude is defined by Wikipedia: "Gratitude is a state or feeling of appreciation for anything. It could be a relationship, abundance, state of health, personal or public blessings, there is no limit to what gratitude could be applied to.  -  Many feel that gratitude itself has a power to it. That as we appreciate something in this way it expands" When I looked it up in Wikipedia, I loved the last line, " That as we appreciate something in this way it expands." YES YES YES.  I like this thought that there is a continuation that spreads and grows with a positive cycle. We have many simple things to be grateful for in every day. A few would be food, shelter and family.  Neve...

Partner Midnight Dance 20 x 20 Acrylic on Canva s        This was painted similar to a piece I did last year with a single horse in it. My reference photo as two horses in it so I decided to paint both of them in it this time.  I think I am done, but will look at it one more time later today. Contact me for your own painting. Laurie   © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011   One of those mornings... When you wake up at four a.m. and cannot go back to sleep.  I chose to tiptoe out of the bedroom early this morning and work on my backlog of computer things.  The goal was to get it done so I would have time to walk this morning. We walked yesterday about two miles... about an hour walk around the lake shore drive by us. It was cool with the wind blowing but still feeling warm at near seventy degrees. What drew my attention was the symphony of the trees. Here at the lake we have tall pine trees, short o...

ORANGE HORSE GIVE AWAY Painting 9 x 12 inches  Oil on Board Free giveaway to first email today. CLAIMED! SUSAN Thank you for writing and it is coming your way. Contact me for your own painting. Laurie    © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011 DIVINE ORDER... Coming home always feels good.   Arriving in the house last night to the song-tweets of our birds and the bounding Paddy Dog at the door barking a greeting does a lot for the weary traveler. Thank goodness for a great house sitter, clean floors, fed animals and birds and a pitcher of homemade tea in the frig.  It feels like divine order to me! How easy it is at times to see things as we want to see them and not as God has them laid out.  There is a definite difference between His order and our order. In order to see God's plan for us we must believe it to be.  The connection is first made from the heart to the mind and on to the physical form.  I say the hea...

TWO FROM THE HERD Available at Mirada Fine Art 18 x 24 inches  Oil on Canvas      Contact me for your own painting. Laurie   © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011  Exciting moments in life often leave treasured memories. Shopping at the Evil Empire gets to me to begin with, but going there with Tink added new dimension. Terry and I are NOT Walmart shoppers and we consider it the Evil Empire for several reasons... so many products NOT made in the USA and the store presents so much temptation to buy and buy and buy. Shelves of temptation. BUT that is where we went with the Tink... to buy her some new play shoes. Her room swallowed up her old ones and she had on her reserve shoes. We breezed through the card aisle to grab a TINKERBELL birthday card..for guess who.  AND we bought one for mommy too. Then it was off to the kids area to look for Tinkerbell shoes...and on the way some clothes fell in the b...

Spring Roses 30 x 40 inches   Oil on Canvas    Sold to a collector in Connecticut. Thank you.    Contact me for your own painting. Laurie   © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011  His Palette of Colors varies in each of our lives. No two of us are created exactly the same.  I think we spend so much time finding fault in others that we miss the beauty in their palette. When God created each of us, He carefully chose how He 'knitted' together our pieces and what colors were in our individual palettes. Terry found the Tink in her room this morning trying to choose her colors in her palette, but it was a dry attempt with no water.  Watercolors do not work dry. I compromised  and gave up cleaning the house for the big party tomorrow and sat down at the table to paint with her. I always carry my watercolors with me. She was delighted and for the next hour she plied her paper with lots of purple and pinks...

Fishing Buddies 16 x 16 ft  Oil on Canvas     SOLD  Contact me for your own painting. Laurie © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011 There is something in the air.... FLOATING.... light as a cloud and crystal clear... on the wind and not so near.   Childhood memories come tumbling back on the wind blowing around us. Closing my eyes I can feel a bubble brush upon my check. It suddenly popped, leaving a soapy lightness kissing my cheek. Bampa sits on the porch making bubbles with his sweet granddaughter. His patience never ending for over an hour as she chased bubbles across the yard.   Simplicity in the play. Beautiful crystal bubbles in all sizes dancing through the air as small hands reach up to, stretching in hope to grasp the elusive sphere floating upward to God. God's breath of wind fills each  of these crystal spheres. Simplicity. The breath of God... have you felt it on your face recently? ...

Horse Play 10 x 10 inches  Oil on Canvas   Available   Contact me for pricing. Laurie   © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011  Shhh...its a secret. Betcha don't realize it... There is a secret to simplicity. There is a way to bring your life under 'control'.  Shhh...be quiet and listen. In 17th century France, Brother Lawrence , a humble monk serving in a monastery as a cook, discovered how to put God First in everything he did. This went way beyond the typical rituals and prayers observed in the monastery, God was first in the kitchen as Brother Lawrence worked. God was first in all his conversations with others in the monastery.  God was first in every aspect of his life. RESULT:   A SIMPLE LIFE.  GOD IS ALWAYS PRESENT: Here is some of what Brother Lawrence wrote: "God has infinite treasure to bestow.  When He (God) finds a soul penetrated with a lively faith, He pours into it His grac...