©Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026
The Awakening
Oil on Canvas SOLD by Laurie Pace
THE AWAKENING — The Words Beneath the Water
An Artist's Story of a Mother's Love and a Son's Devotion
Some paintings begin with color.
Others begin with love.
THE AWAKENING, a 38 × 58 original oil painting, began with a son who wanted something special for his mother in Singapore.
I had painted a large, colorful horse painting for him the year before. Those horses found their home above his bed in New York City.
Then he commissioned a painting for his mother.
A magnificent dark pink lotus surrounded by brilliant blue water and floating lily pads. But before I began painting, I wrote words directly onto the canvas that were his mother's favorite quotes.
Words about motherhood, childhood, love, faith, and the beautiful things we cannot always see. One passage read: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or heard. They must be felt with the heart.”
And another gave the painting its name: “We do not go to heaven, we grow to heaven. It is not a physical location or a journey. It is an awakening.” Those words eventually disappeared beneath the paint, but they remained part of the painting's beginning.
Layer by layer, the lotus opened. Rich reds and pinks emerged against blues, violets, turquoise, and green.
I treasured every part of creating this painting.
I photographed its progress so carefully that I created a hardcover book for his mother, preserving the story of how her painting came to life.
Later, I received a photograph of THE AWAKENING hanging in her home in Singapore, beautifully displayed against an unusual deep-red backing.
The horses were in New York.
The lotus was in Singapore.
And connecting them was the love of a son for his mother.
Sometimes the most meaningful part of a painting is something we cannot see.
Read the complete story and see the painting's journey through photographs on Threads of Grace:
From my heart and my easel,
Laurie Pace | Elle Pace
The Spirit of the Paint
Laurie Pace shares The Awakening, a lotus oil painting commissioned for a mother in Singapore, with meaningful words hidden beneath the paint.
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Blogger labels: Laurie Pace, Elle Pace, The Awakening, lotus painting, original oil painting, floral art, painting process, artist studio stories, Threads of Grace, Singapore art collection, commissioned painting, The Spirit of the Paint
Follow the Spirit of the Paint... with Laurie Pace
Laurie is an international artist, her paintings are collected in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, DuBai, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, St Thomas, Romania, Greece, Croatia, and Ecuador.
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