Lawrence Lee: Painting Abstract Landscapes in Acrylic – December 1 – 3, 2023
$465.00
Discover the landscapes that live within your mind! This workshop will help you discover your innate understanding of landscapes and how you can apply painterly techniques to translate your internal vision into the revealed image.
Hours: 9am – 4pm
12 in stock
Lawrence Lee has been a professional artist for almost fifty years. He has known love and loss in near equal measure. He is interested in almost everything, but has a special fondness for language and subatomic physics.
He says that he learned most of what he knows about making art in high school. He went on to receive degrees in art (BFA ’69, MA ‘70). He started showing in Tucson galleries in 1972 and had his first one-man show in 1976 at age 29. Since then, he has had countless solo shows in fine galleries from coast to coast and Europe. In his long career as a professional artist, he has painted and sold over 3,000 original paintings, which are now in museums and thousands of personal and corporate art collections.
He retired to a Caribbean island in 2000–a millionaire–but life continued to happen in unanticipated ways. His wife was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, and providing for her care consumed almost all of his savings, so he returned to work in 2014. Lawrence’s poetry has appeared in print and online journals and an international anthology.
In January 2020, the Tucson Museum of Art accepted a second of his works into its permanent collection.
He has been active in digital art since the 1980s, when he illustrated the first children’s book created in color on a computer. Now, at age 75, he offers a rare voice of experience and maturity in the burgeoning genre of NFTs. He is a cryptoart OG (2018) and was a key member of the group responsible for creating the 10% industry standard for royalty payments on secondary sales.
• In January 2020, he collaborated with Ballet Tucson by creating seven Hollywood-style theatrical flats painted in a highly abstract homage to the greats of American jazz, especially that of Dave Brubeck. The finished panels comprised a work 8’ high and over 30’ long.
• He was recently honored by having his work included in “Curatorial Volume.2, Leaders in Contemporary Art.”
• He has accepted an invitation to exhibit his work in the Florence Biennale in Florence, Italy, in 2023.
• He recently completed a major commission for the Interstellar Research Group’s 2021 Symposium, which was held in Tucson this year.
Lawrence has published several books, including (Available at Amazon)
• “Living With an Impostor: A Confluence of Art, Depression and Dementia” — detailing his former wife Mary Wyant’s evaporation into the fog of Alzheimer’s.
• “A Field Guide to Dragons”– A children’s book for adults
• “Poems 2012”
• “The Making of Spirit Garden: A Collaborative Ballet” — chronicling the development and production of “Spirit Garden,” first performed in 2016 and now on the Ballet Tucson standard bi-annual rotation of contemporary works. Choreographed by Chieko Imada. (Available at Blurb .)
His favorite quote is from famed science fiction author Robert Heinlein: “Love is that condition in which another person’s happiness is essential to your own.”
Digital tech has allowed him to increase his ability to follow his creative vision into new areas and to develop new ideas much more quickly than he can by pushing paint.
Lawrence continues to live and work in Tucson.
Discover the landscapes that live within your mind! This workshop will help you discover your innate understanding of landscapes and how you can apply painterly techniques to translate your internal vision into the revealed image.
The concept of the landscape seems to be something innate within us, and we are attuned to landscapes because of our daily interactions with the world around us. A horizon line, value, color theory, contrast, center of interest, these and other principles can combine in myriad ways, and through an understanding of how they relate, you can make them real. Sculptors who work in stone reveal a physical world through a subtractive process, chipping away all that is not the object. In painting imaginary abstract landscapes, we use an additive process to do the same thing.
Basic design principles can be used in the same way that we use syntax in written or verbal communication, helping us understand and more clearly communicate through a language of visual symbolism. The conventions of syntax in a language allow people to communicate clearly through written or spoken words. The principles of design allow people to communicate on a vastly more complex level. We will explore painterly techniques that can be used like language to inform the viewer's own imagination.
The landscape is a powerful subject for artists because it is a universal experience we all share. We see landscapes every day, and we are attuned to the visual elements that make them up - the horizon line, the colors of the sky and the earth, the contrast between light and dark, lost edges and the center of interest that draws our eye.
We will begin by examining how these basic design principles can be used as the language of the landscape. We will talk about the role of the horizon line in creating a sense of space and depth in a painting, and we will explore how the use of value can create a sense of vast distances.
Next, we will dive into color theory and how color choices can create different moods and emotions in a painting. We will experiment with limited palettes and explore how contrasting colors create dynamic and visually interesting compositions.
We will also talk about the importance of a center of interest in a painting and how it can guide the viewer's eye through the composition.
In addition to discussing these design principles, we will also explore different painterly techniques that can be used to create texture, depth, and atmosphere in a painting. We will experiment with layering colors and textures to create a sense of depth and the complexity of nature, and we will explore different brushstrokes and techniques that can be used to create various visual effects.
Ultimately, the goal of this workshop is to provide you with a toolbox of design principles and painterly techniques that you can use to create your own imaginary landscapes. By using these tools like a language, you can create paintings that communicate on a vastly more complex level than words ever could. So let's get started and see what kind of magical landscapes we can create!
