Lauri found a passion for art a little late in life. With a degree in Business Administration (Accounting), she pursued careers in Government and Public Education, while raising two children with her husband, Roger. After retiring, that creative nudge, which had always been there, became more of a push. Lauri has always found art in the simplest of places – the cracks in the road where she walks and the patterns in her granite countertops become profiles of horses, bison and cows, and fluffy clouds become fields and trees, or even portraits.
So the push got stronger, and Lauri started attending a few workshops, learning from artists she admires. She grew up around cattle, and still helps her family with a small cow and calf operation. Lauri’s agricultural roots and life-long love affair with the American cowboy have fueled her concentration in Western art, cattle and working cowboys her favorite subjects. Lauri’s father, who was a true cowboy and rancher, passed at an early age. Painting in the Western genre is a way for her to honor him, and live a life that might have been.Lauri truly believes that everyone has a creative side. You just have to let that nudge become a push, and follow where it takes you. Lauri and her husband, Roger, have been married since 1988, and enjoy traveling to shows and galleries. But, Lauri is just as happy painting in her little home studio in southeastern Oklahoma. Artist CVCowgirl Artists of America/ Western Gallery Annual Juried Online Show, 2023Mountain Oyster Club Art Show and Sale, Tucson, AZ, 2022Award of Excellence, Lake Granbury Art Association Juried Fall Art Exhibition, Granbury, TX, 2022Women Artists of the West 52nd National Juried Exhibition, Annapolis, MD, 2022Stamford Art Foundation Western Art Show, Stamford, TX, 202252nd Juried Art Exhibit, The Goddard Center, Ardmore, OK, 2022Mountain Oyster Club Art Show and Sale, Tucson, AZ, 2021Juried in as Associate Member, Women Artists of the West, Spring, 2021Honorable Mention, Mountain View Americana Art Show, Easley, SC, 20212nd Place, 51st Juried Art Exhibit, The Goddard Center, Ardmore, OK, 2021Featured Artist, Art of the West, Graceful Arts Center, Alva, OK, 202140th Annual Western Spirit Juried Art Show and Sale, Cheyenne, WY, 2021Runner-up, Southwest Art Magazine Artistic Excellence Competition, 2020FAV 15% BoldBrush Painting Competition, June 2020FAV15% BoldBrush Painting Competition, March, 2020Western National Juried Exhibit, Dallas Metro Arts Contemporary, Dallas, TX, 2020Jeanne R. and Lawrence London Award for Excellence, 50th Juried Art Exhibit, The Goddard Center, Ardmore, OK, 2020Stamford Art Foundation Western Art Show, Stamford, TX, 2020Featured Artist, Backroads Show, The Vault Art Gallery, Pauls Valley, OK, 2020Artwork selected for Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition annual auction, 12×12, 2021, 2020Artwork selected for Oklahoma City Allied Arts annual auction, Artini, 2020, 20194th Place, Western Art Rodeo Association, Fall Gather, 2019Published in “Acrylics Works 6, The Best of Acrylic Painting, Creative Energy,” 2019Guest artist, Studio 9 Art Gallery, Durant, OK, 2019Gallery RepresentationThe Vault Gallery, Pauls Valley, OKProfessional AssociationsAssociate and Founding Member, Cowgirl Artists of AmericaAssociate Member, Women Artists of the WestMember, Oklahoma Visual Arts CoalitionAssociate Member, American Women Artists
Statement
I paint as a way of remembering a life I was born to, but veered from, when my father, who was a cattle rancher, passed at an early age. Working cowboys and livestock are favorite subjects, and when I paint them, I am in that scene, in that life. Oil is my medium of choice. I love that it can be pushed and pulled around on the canvas, and there is something therapeutic in that to me. I am a self-taught artist, and each painting I begin has something new to teach me. It might be that I wipe off something I’m not happy with, and find that wipe mark to be just what I was looking for. Or, I might wait a little too late to wipe off, and have to scrape off some almost dried paint, only to find that the resulting residual bits of paint is something I like, and will use that technique again. I used to wonder when I would learn all I needed to know to become an accomplished painter. Now, I know that time will never come, and that I will continue to learn as long as I paint.