prairie field

Posted on February 8, 2019February 8, 2019by LaurieMacFayden

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acrylic paintings edmonton artist laurie macfayden prairie art

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Artist Statement

I’m a painter and award-winning writer who’s endlessly fascinated with wordplay and the visual arts. Largely self-taught, I painted in watercolours, oils and acrylics in high school, but set the palette aside for two decades while pursuing a career in print journalism. In the mid-1990s I rediscovered my passion for throwing paint around.

For me, art-making is not merely a process of visual expression but a merging with the divine spark/vibrational energy that is, to me, the creative process. The resulting work is hard to categorize: I paint serene, post-impressionist landscapes and I paint boisterous, abstract-expressionist colour bombs. I paint electric skies and lively, dancing gardens. My urban and inner landscapes are more visceral; I apply paint with a vengeance, using brushes, knives, electric toothbrush, rolling pin … dabbling, flinging, dripping.

Growing up in southern Ontario, I was keenly influenced by nature hikes through the woodlands and marshes of Simcoe County with my father Clifford, a painter and avid birdwatcher. Works by Emily Carr, A.Y. Jackson, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Joan Miro and Mark Rothko make me feel great and small at the same time.

I work mostly in acrylics, and I’ve been told there’s a joyous, unfettered quality to my art that borders on reckless abandon; it pleases me to hear that because I never was very good at staying inside the lines.

Exhibition highlights

Real Straight Talk About Souls
(for life is holy and every moment is precious)
July-October, 2017
Woodcroft Library, Edmonton

Art Unhemmed: Everything Cannot Be True
March 5-8, 2015
Skirts Afire HerArts Festival
Nina Haggerty Centre, Edmonton

Aspects of Self
Dec. 5, 2013-Jan. 31, 2014
Group show featuring Fighting Normal
installation with Amy Willans
Gray Gallery, MacEwan University, Edmonton

Fighting Normal
Jan. 25-March 2, 2013
Multi-discipline installation with poet Amy Willans
exploring the stigma of mental illness
Visual Arts Alberta Gallery, Edmonton

DiverseScapes
April 3-14, 2012
Alberta Society of Artists Group Show
Walterdale Playhouse, Edmonton

The Poetry of Water
June 6-Aug. 15, 2011
Solo Painting Show, Kaasa Gallery, Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, AB

Big Bang Oh
Nov. 14, 2010
Solo Show, Mspace Loft Gallery
Edmonton, AB

Prism
March 26-April 23, 2009
Paintings and sculpture with Liz Sullivan and Helen Rogers
VAA Gallery, Edmonton, AB

Fahrenheit 451
Feb. 5-March 19, 2009
Solo Show, Freedom to Read Week
Concordia University College

Dancin’ the Man Rhythm
Nov. 1-Dec. 22, 2008
Solo Show, The Gallery at Milner
7 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton, AB

Diversity 2007
June 21-July 21, 2007
‘Da Capo’ – winner of Viewer’s Choice Award
Visual Arts Alberta annual juried exhibition,
The Works Art & Design Festival
VAA Gallery, Edmonton, AB

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