I started a new tall piece tonight.

Reception this Tuesday!

new series, new statement

In my latest series of landscape drawings, beyond|return, I pay attention to the places where pattern overwhelms itself and breaks down, as well as the moments when chaos falls into a rhythm. I look at details and see patterns that stretch back for decades, millennia. They stretch forward too. To see a pattern fall apart all you really need to do is change perspective, take longer view, or maybe a closer one.

My drawings begin with observations. I notice how the landscape shifts around me as I move through it. I notice how bunches of leaves that start as a group separate out and become silhouettes of individual leaves, before becoming a group again. When I walk my dog I notice the interactions between geometric shadows cast by rooftops, telephone poles, and wires, and the organic shapes cast by trees. I notice that on trash day there is an extra pattern on the street, a pattern that emerges and then disappears one day every week.

My observations lead to plein air drawings and photographs of the landscape. Using opaque and transparent paints as well as dry media, I create large landscape drawings based on the observed, drawn, and photographed landscape.

While my motivation - or impulse - is visual, bringing the groundless aspect of my landscape drawings to the suburbs speaks of the instability of the stability seeker's haven, suburbia. I think it also speaks to my own desire for stability in the form of a house nestled amongst some trees. 

I don't have any photos of this new series yet, but here are some of the source images I am working from. 

Abstract Landscape is now open in Charlestown!

Two new pieces from the Spot Pond series

 

Both of these pieces will be included in my upcoming show with Sand T Kalloch.

beyond|return

Here is some info about my show at the Middlesex School in Concord, MA. 
https://www.mxschool.edu/news-events/article/2013/september/beyondreturn-visiting-artist

There will be a reception with an informal artist talk on Friday the 27th, from 6 to 9pm.

Busy Fall!

I will be participating in Open Studios, I'm at 59 Wareham St on the 2nd floor.

I also have two shows this fall. Tomorrow, Sept. 4th, I will be installing a solo show in the Cornelious Ayer Wood Gallery at the Middlesex School in Concord, MA. Later this month my work will go up in a two person show, with Sand T Kalloch, at the McGladrey Gallery in Charlestown.

Spot Pond Installation Shots

finally finished this Spot Pond piece - just in time for the show in North Adams!

detail of new Spot Pond piece

I recently had a short piece of nonfiction published somewhere other than my blog.

follow this link:
LISTEN TO MY FINGERTIPS

Spot Pond Press Release

Local Artist, Michele Lauriat, will be showing oversized watercolor drawings in a solo exhibition at the Branch Gallery in North Adams, MA.  The exhibition, Spot Pond, will include several drawings inspired by the Fells Woods conservation area.

“The drawings in this exhibition are inspired by current and childhood wanderings in a conservation area not far from where I live. As I child, I picked blueberries there with my father while hearing stories about his childhood adventures in the same woods. These days it is my nephew who explores the area with me. He fishes and catches crawfish while I draw. While we seek out the details of the day, we participate in a pattern that is too big for us to see.” –Michele Lauriat

Spot Pond opens July 25^th with a reception from 6 to 9pm, and closes on August 25th.  The exhibition is just one of many events in DownStreet Art’s 2013 celebration (http://www.downstreetart.org/).

For more information about Michele’s work please visit her website: http://www.michelelauriat.com/

Or email her at michelelauriat@gmail.com

patterns, nature, and history

Many times my father has told me that his father used to ask him if he knew why they never saw Vermont license plates around here (Boston). “Because why would you leave paradise?” was the answer my grandfather would always provide. My father didn’t only tell me this story, he re-enacted it. On the rare occasion that we did see a Vermont plate in the Boston area the question would be his to pose. Like my father before me, I’d wait patiently for my grandfather’s response.

I never met my grandfather, but recalling this story makes me realize that the reverence for nature I inherited from my father, was likely inherited from his father.  

Spot Pond, this summer in North Adams, MA!

new job

I wish people bought paintings as often as they buy sandwiches.

May Open Studios - what you missed

Open Studios Today!

You can find me at 59 Wareham St., 2nd floor

Down Street Art

I'm very pleased to announce that I will be participating in Down Street Art in North Adams, MA this summer! Details to follow.

I am hoping to get at least one of these pieces finished for open studios next weekend.

 

new piece in progress

Installation Shots from my show at Goddard Gallery

installation shots