Laurie Pace - Fine Artist

© 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...

© 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'...

© 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 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 ...

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 At The Ocean Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   The Tomorrows... are you with me?  There is something about standing at the edge of the ocean that changes our sense of time. The water seems endless. The horizon stretches farther than our eyes can follow. And there she stands—small against all that vastness, looking outward. When I look at this painting now, I think about the tomorrows. When we are young, there seem to be so many of them.  We grow each day in our individual ways, reaching toward futures we cannot yet imagine. And perhaps that shouldn't stop simply because we grow older. Our tomorrows change. Our plans change. We change. Yet God is still at work in us. God does not change.  I don't have to see beyond the horizon to know there is something there. Perhaps our lives are much the same. We see today.  God sees beyond the horizon. Elle Read the ...

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Falling for You Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   What makes us fall in love with something when we can't quite explain why? A person. A place. A piece of music. Even a painting. When I look again at Falling for You, I remember what I loved about painting her. She isn't completely revealed.  One eye seems to find you while the other slips behind her hair and all that fractured color. Her hair becomes streaks and slabs of paint. Her clothing nearly disappears into the marks around her. And yet, we find her. Face enough to find her. Paint enough not to trap her. Maybe life is like that too. We spend so much time wanting to understand everything before we're willing to trust. We want the whole picture before taking the next step. But faith doesn't give us the entire picture. “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” — 2 Corinthians 5:7 Perhaps we don't always need to see eve...

© Laurie Pace        Graphics One Design 2026 Don't Mess with Me Oil on Canvas  SOLD   by Laurie Pace   Sometimes a painting knows exactly where it belongs. The woman who purchased Don't Mess with Me knew precisely where this horse was going. Behind her business desk. Anyone sitting across from her would have that eye, those ears and that wild mane looking directly back at them. And a nyone sitting across from her—or meeting with her on a screen during those early COVID days—had that "LOOK" staring at them...daring them you might say. No little sign saying Please understand who is in charge here was necessary. 😂 Looking at this painting again makes me think about confidence. Real strength doesn't always need to announce itself. As I've grown older, I've learned that courage isn't about being certain of ourselves. Our confidence comes from knowing we don't face what lies ahead alone. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.....