Biography

I’m Lawren Rich (they, them)

I studied Graphic Design at Red River College in the late 1980’s. These studies were supplemented with time in the Winnipeg Art Gallery live “open studio” drawing classes learning to capture the human form.

After this study period, formative practical training came from years producing commercial mural art and restoration projects such as the Winnipeg landmark Hotel Fort Garry.

This initial career move was a “trial-by-fire” period gaining on the job experience through large projects often employing a team of artists. I found myself working alongside other craftspeople skilled in old world techniques such as gilding gaining the type of education one cannot find in a classroom. It was a unique and intense period of active learning through invaluable opportunities while learning to problem solve on the fly… not the typical route of emerging artists

Through the years I gradually began to combine these "street" skills with the graphic design and drawing education to cultivate a unique personal style of art on canvas. A professional artist with now over 30 years experience producing thousands of pieces, my canvas work is shown in local galleries such as Winnipeg's Gallery Lacosse and I’ve been slowly expanding into a more national presence across Canada such as Webster Gallery in Calgary. My work is regularly showcased by Winnipeg home builders like Maric Homes.

I’ve participated in international group shows such as Ferrara, Italy in 2012 and was selected as a sponsored artist by Golden Paints of New York to represent their product as an educator in Manitoba.

Some of the success I’ve enjoyed is returned to the community, as emerging artists fill my teaching workshops. My experience has earned me some respect from local artists, enough to have me judge several Interlake juried art shows.
I regularly donate pieces to many worthy fund raising causes such as the Canadian Cancer Society and Winnipeg Humane Society and other arts and cultural groups.

I also play jazz guitar at small venues around Winnipeg and the Manitoba Interlake. My approach to music follows the same lines as his art; expressive, creative and personal with an emphasis on space, and vitality. 

Art Statement

Living and working on the Canadian prairies I’ve always been profoundly influenced by the contrast between the concentrated energy of the city I grew up in, and the vast spaces beyond. Out of this contrast evolved a variety of simple themes exploring large vs small, tight vs open, built vs grown.

As a structured contemporary painter who explores abstractions, I still like my work to feel accessible. In my prairie abstract series for example, I prefer to exude quiet comfort, rather than capturing every detail of a classic rural scene. The cityscapes, I’d rather highlight structures like a bridge, capturing raw decayed beauty rather than a clean streetscape and a location. To me it seems more natural and ‘living’.

Having spent several years in a rural community, I was influenced by the natural structures, lake prairie environment and animals I found around my home and on my many bike rides producing the rural based pieces of this period.

Now back living in Winnipeg, I still remain open to these natural influences and I will often jump back and forth between themes and projects enjoying the cross-pollination between them. They have begun to merge along similar lines of application, colour, mood and feel so I become very excited about where these might go in the future.

Currently, I’m leaning more towards neutrality and minimalism, a more limited palette, and trying to break up colour and image in the manner of deconstruction. It’s the mood I want to capture... maybe more distant like an older photo or distant hazy memory containing an inner light. I employ multimedia applications such as metal leafing taking the work beyond the confines of painting and more into the layered “building” of a piece. I enjoy layering abstractions into scenic work to explore contrast between real and imaginary maybe creating a “window” through the real world for perhaps a view into something else.

Accepting the nature of evolution and impermanence, I continue to rework, recycle or retire pieces that are no longer reflective of where I am currently. I consider pieces unfinished until they leave the studio remaining ‘open’ for further work.