Laara WilliamSen,
International Professional Painter,
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
Laara WilliamSen has
been painting and drawing since the age of 3 years. Growing up in the
Lower Fraser Valley, B.C., Canada, she was immersed in the seasons and
surrounded by
a large extended family and a supportive country community where she received
much encouragement
to continue her drawings as a child. At
the age of 19 years, she was fortunate
to study with the international artist, Robert E. Wood in both his New Westminster and
North Vancouver, B.C. studios where he taught her the basics of oil painting.
During her twenties,
she painted as many as six paintings a day, one on top of another, on cardboard
in her
garage studio. Often, she painted nature
from memory.
At this time, she also
began to sell
her paintings from her home studio through personal referrals.
WilliamSen
attended the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada
and graduated in 1988 with a four year major in Interdisciplinary studies. She has been deeply influenced by the art
works of W. Kandinsky, Georgia O'Keefe, Frieda Kahlo, Emily Carr and the works
of the Impressionists and Fauve artists. The city and street people inspire her
to paint as does the forest, ocean and stars. She is fascinated by our
responses to the infinite cycles within both nature and human nature. Colour and texture are important to her. In the end, although she creates the painting,
she believes that once it is completed the painting has a life of its own.
WilliamSen
has received nine international awards, most notable, the Top Ten Painting Award in 1989 in the International Artitudes
Competition sponsored by Gallery 54 in SoHo, New York, N.Y., U.S.A. and
curated by the Fogg Museum, the MOMA in
Chicago and the Guild Hall Museum.
Other awards include the PEACE
PROJECT, U.S.A. selected touring international group exhibition, 2011,
2012, 2013 and 2014. Some local awards include The B.C. Cultural fund and The
B.C. Scholarship Fund in Canada. She has exhibited solo over 90 times and
participated in 131 group exhibitions.
During the past few years WilliamSen has been honored to be selected to
participate in twenty-six international group exhibitions. Her art works are held in Permanent Collections at the Paul Getty III
Museum, Siena, Italy, The Boston Art Library, New York, USA, and the Biuro
Pronocji Kultury, Gdansk, Poland. WilliamSen’s
paintings are held in private collections in Canada, the U.S.A., Mexico, the
United Kingdom, Italy, Poland,
Germany, France,Thailand, China and Australia.
For further information please contact Email laara63@gmail.com
Portfolio Website
https://laarawilliamsen.art
ARTIST STATEMENT – Laara
WilliamSen, International professional painter
The
city and street people inspire me to paint as does the forest, ocean and stars.
I am fascinated by our
responses
to the infinite cycles within both nature and human nature. I am currently developing an
Abstract
series of paintings based upon my inspiration. I create from immediate, process
based
movements. I use a paddle and my fingers when working
with acrylic paints on canvas. Color
and
texture
are important to me in my compositions. My intention is
that viewers may experience a sense of
unity
and recognize or create their own stories from my art works.
Conversation
from Carl Benz Cloud University online 2015 interview with Laara WilliamSen
“I knew at age five years that I was
a painter; artist. My mother asked me
when I was going to my first day of Grade One Elementary School, what I wanted
to be when I grew up and I told her that I was an artist. She was hoping that I would become a teacher
in the provincial school system and that was not for me. I became different sort of art teacher;
facilitator so that I could develop my own methods of facilitation and create
my own programs.
The largest leap in my way of making
marks happened during the four years that I was at the Emily Carr University of
Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C.
Attending full time and receiving the mentorship of Geoff Rees, Sylvia
Scott and Susan Hillman helped me immensely to find my own art language. I experimented more than ever before. I did preliminary sketches and learned about
art history. It was during these years
that I began painting quickly with my fingers and I gained a better
understanding of my place as an artist in our contemporary art world. I hope that my art language will always
continue to change as I continue to experience new and amazing events and
sights in our world.
I love the Modern Artists from the
Fauve movement and the Impressionists as well as our own contemporary Canadian
Group of Seven and women artists such as Frieda Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe and
Emily Carr. Joseph Beuys is my personal
all-time favorite because of his ideals and his very committed performances. ”
