Painting for the Sheer Joy of It!

Laura Garrison: A Biographical Sketch by H. shohan

Unfailingly vibrant, decorative and alive, Laura Garrison’s acrylics occupy the rich, ambiguous zone between abstraction and realism. Color is form. Strong, broad brushstrokes are the building blocks. The resulting unplanned, spontaneous painting is Garrison’s signature. A joyous, lets-see-where-this-takes-us creative ferment animates each work. Originally from Warwick, Rhode Island, Laura has lived 20 years in Western Massachusetts where she savors her privacy, nature’s beauty, the availability of fresh air, and open spaces. Her formal art education began at Boston’s Vesper George School of Art in 1976. She later received her BFA in painting from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Painting excursions to the Caribbean are causing a transformation to ripple through Garrison’s style. The islands represent for Laura a tropical assemblage imitative of her paintings: hillsides of houses, like mosaics of random, bright, raw colors freshen the eye. Varieties of hibiscus blossoms everywhere lend streets and lanes a festive air.

As Laura’s desire to see the world in terms of color ripens and matures, interest in the human figure, for the time being is joined by an infatuation with still life and the complexities of interiors—often combined with a view out over a balcony or deck. Future exhibitions will reveal where Garrison’s new, richly patterned style is taking her. So far, it seems as bold as before, but with the addition of new subtlety and refinement. The excitement of the islands combined with the placid simplicity of home in Western New England creates a new paradox for Laura’s flickering, lambent forms/colors.