About Pauline Lawson

THE ART OF PAULINE LAWSON

‘Imagination is the eye of the soul’ describes Pauline Lawson and her work well. As a child Pauline was always drawing and painting, encouraged by her family. She says “I lived in my imagination and continue to do so. My art is a diary of my journey through life. It has always been my ongoing focus.” Pauline was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, on February 3,1938, where she grew up. In1955, Pauline studied Commercial Art, Life Drawing & Textile Design at King’s University, Newcastle. She also attended Newcastle College of Art and Industrial Design from 1959 to 1961. On emigrating from the UK to Canada with her family in 1970, Pauline started private studies for two years with the late Professor David Anderson, University of Victoria, BC. These studies included silk screen printing and drawing. Gibson’s Public Art Gallery, Gibson’s Landing, BC ‘When Stones Speak.’ An Installation Exhibit: Acrylic In a career spanning nearly 50 years, her creative talent covers a wide variety of styles. Her art hangs in collections in Japan,Holland, Australia, New Zealand, UK, the USA, and Canada, including Vancouver and her hometown of Gibsons, BC. Pauline has been involved in the Gibsons Public Art Gallery since its eariest days. She has exhibited there often over the years, as she will again from 5th-28th April, 2014. When Stones Speak, An Installation: Acrylic Inks –Poetry on Silk. She has also shown her work both in The Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt, and other Coast galleries. Pauline uses mainly acrylic inks, sometimes with a watercolour technique. Initially, her work was very detailed, full of whimsy and humour, in bright colours. Her love of Persian art gave her a taste for miniatures. Her miniatures of everyday life became popular when Pauline had her own studio gallery in Gibsons where she exhibited and sold her work for some years. While there, she began painting powerful mandalas on big canvases, in turn leading to her mystical icons which are full of vibrant colour, goldleaf, symbols, and imagery. She says “The language of colour is a thread running through all my work.” Of her Watermarks exhibit at Gibsons Public Art Gallery in 2007, Pauline says, “This collection is not only the culmination of my 40 year career as a professional artist but is also an expression of my vision as it is now, combined with my study of colour. I have always worked with small brushes in a very detailed, conceptual way. However, this collection is a joyful liberation from the confines of my earlier paintings. Using such a large brush I look forward to being free to explore my expanding vision of colour, texture and form further. Pauline has played an active part in Gibsons community life. Commissioned in 1987 by the BC Cancer Society, as Director of Murals at Camp Good Times, in Roberts Creek where she worked for five years. Prints of the murals are now used to fundraise for cancer research. From 1981 to 1987 Pauline taught at Adult Day Care, which she found rewarding, saying “I learnt so much during this time.” She received the Air Canada Heart of Gold Award for this work. In 1998 she was commissioned to work on murals with schoolchildren, at Langdale Elementary School. Coast Cable TV subsequently made a documentary of this project. In 2011, Pauline was featured in Artists of British Columbia, Vol. 2, published by the Leighdon Studio Gallery, Vancouver, BC. When not painting, Pauline has written, illustrated and published two books, Darling Pass the Darjeeling (2003), and Niblo, Niblet and the Nib: The Adventures of Three Penguins, (2013). She has been interviewed on CBC TV, BBC TV and Coast Cable TV. See Pauline’s CV.