Laurie Pace - Fine Artist

© 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...

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Painting In process Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11 Finding Her in the Paint I began with an older black-and-white photograph. It didn't look exactly like the woman who eventually appeared on my canvas, but it gave me somewhere to begin. I had a 24 x 24 canvas in the studio, so that became the size. No great plan. Just a photograph, a square canvas, and charcoal. Before going very far, I pulled out my color chart and began mixing small samples of colors that spoke to me. Most eventually found their way into the painting. I had absolutely no idea what the background would become. My brain kept saying, Make it dark. Follow the photograph.    My heart kept saying, COLOR. I didn't want to bur...

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Becoming Oil on Canvas  Available  by Laurie Pace and from Oct through Nov 6th it is available at The Centerpiece Gallery in Raleigh North Carolina.   BECOMING — When Worry Gives Way to Growth The Centerpiece Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina will be the location of Women Artists of the West 56th National Show which opens Oct 9th -November 6th of this year.  Becoming is one of the juried in pieces at the show.  This little red horse began as Standing Tall. I loved where the painting was going—but it wasn't finished. So I kept painting. It changed once. Then again. Somewhere through three very different versions, I realized the painting was showing me its real name: Becoming. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” — Isaiah 60:1 Life can be much the same. We are always becoming, yet worry can make that process so much harder. Worry fills our tho...

© 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...

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Face With In- the beginnings Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   At 4:15 this morning, a long beep woke me. Terry was already in the kitchen making coffee and wanted me to see the red moon. I made myself a cup of hot tea, crawled back into bed, and began going through old photographs on my computer. Instead of simply cleaning out files, I found myself walking backward through years of paintings. And something happened. I began seeing my work differently. I saw strength I had forgotten was there. Color. Courage. Paintings where I trusted myself enough to follow an idea without knowing exactly where it would lead. Then I came across Face Within. I loved the beginning of this painting. I still do. The face had something—the color, the light, those unexpected blues and greens moving through her skin. But I couldn't figure out what the rest of the painting needed. So instead of w...