Laurie Pace - Fine Artist

The Majesty Three 30 x 40 inches  Oil on Canvas       © Laurie Pace  Graphics One Design 1998-2011 Contact me to purchase: Laurie COURAGE ...dare to step out and confront the unknown.    I cannot decide if I like adding the darker values that went into the painting yesterday or not. When you paint you must not be faint of heart. It is from the stepping up on the ladder that you begin to realize what is outside of the box.  Usually when I get to this point I scrape the painting and that may happen by tomorrow...I am still deciding if I like it or not. It takes courage to paint and not be in control. It takes courage to get out of bed every morning.  It takes courage when you loose a loved one of any age. We have buried parents, good friends and a grandchild that was only 11. Last week was the four year anniversary of our eldest grandson's death and it still takes courage and strength of heart to wake up and realize he is gone.  It takes courage to battle an illness. It t

Reunion 3 ft by 4 ft  Oil on Canvas   sold     Contact me for your own painting. Laurie    © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011 SHHH  Spring is here . This week we have been able to get outside and begin cleaning up all the leaves that fell. Last week we were raking and burning but it was warm enough for me to climb on the Cubbie and mulch them instead of burning them.  If you think about our daily experiences... and how seasons change even in our lives, we probably need to do clean up in our lives as well. We cannot be as drastic as burning leaves...but we could mulch things around. Terry made sure I was safety equipped with my ear protection and my safety glasses. I should have worn a work handkerchief over my face because there was a lot of dust. Late yesterday we planted some tulips, little blue iris and yellow daffodils. I will try and take some pictures today.  We took a walk before the sunset last night and I never got in fast enough to retrieve the

Progression on Three Horses 30 x 40 inches  Oil on Canvas For my show in Denver this summer.       Contact me for your own painting. Laurie   © Laurie Justus Pace     Graphics One Design 2011 FREEDOM to grow. When I begin a painting like this, it often does not look ANYTHING like it starts. So this  may be a ride for all of us. Pardon the pun.  I have this vision in my head and I truly do not know what direction I will take this painting. We each have the freedom to grow. Every painting I do has a type of freedom as well. We never turn out like our parents think we will and often we have no clue what is ahead in life. Often we bumble our way through life going up and down and not really living or enjoying life. That is definitely true often with art. It is truly a blessing to know that life is ever changing; my painting is ever changing.  Both have the possibility to change and grow in almost any given direction.  There truly are no limitations other than those we place

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 there was a quaint soft blue frame house off to the left. It w

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 do this and I was going to follow th

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 for others (she was a PHD in counseling) was second in her l

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 either.  We go through the days of our lives enduring growth

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 Bend area, the Gulf coast, the central plains and the Piney

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.  Never get so caught up in life that you take the

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 oak trees and probably at least 30 different species of trees.  S

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 heart because I believe that is where the Spirit

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 basket and a white hat with SWEET TINK on it.  Oh