Bio: Lauren Edmond painter New York City Statement | Present | Past | Future | Contact To receive invitations to shows and exhibits by email, please send email to: lauren@laurenedmond.com by clicking this link or pasting the address into your email program. Artist Statement: Green is more than a color "Food nourishes the body, but flowers heal the soul." Old Proverb In 1992, I made a conscious decision to stop using oil paint because it is a petroleum byproduct and toxic to the natural environment. Now I make oil paintings without using petroleum by-products! Find out how! Painting nature is my passion. Nature inspires me because it is alive, growing, and orgasmic. The assumption that Nature is trite provides big clues into how we perceive ourselves and react to (judge) the world. As we take in nature, we feel revitalizing vibrations that give us the energy to change and improve our lives. Within the constant flux of contemporary culture, some things remain the same because they evoke emotions that underlie and reveal our basic human nature, which is constant yet evolving. Eternal images help to ground us, allowing us to experience the peace of inner being and true confidence, even in a time of accelerated change. I started painting oil on canvas in 1963. For the past 16 years, I have used a computer to make my paintings, a further reflection of our society. Click here to read about the emerging field of digital painting on Wikipedia. And click here for the NYTimes article about David Hockney, another tree painter who now uses the same process; Mr Hockney paints on a Mac using Painter software. And now his iPhone. Computer-as-medium allows me to print perfect reproductions of the originals without having to adjust the colors. And that helps more people become art collectors of original artwork. And, it keeps the environment cleaner. Oil paints are made from heavy metals and petroleum byproducts that (indirectly) support the oil industry. My choice of media is a statement. Using a computer changes the impact on the environment. Computers also pose an environmental threat, and I recycle my computers, and encourage everyone to recycle properly. I hope you enjoy the show, which is always growing and evolving. Present: Please visit the homepage of this website for info on Current Exhibitions. How the paintings on this website are made I paint on a Macintosh compouter with a 24-inch screen. The software is Painter 10. To create my paintings, I start with a blank canvas (at 320 dpi) and use a Wacom graphic tablet that plugs into my computer (with a USB cable). Using "oil paint" media, available in Painter, I paint with a stylus that i have crafted into a brush. I have full control over my tools, including color, brush size, and opacity. These paintings are fully original -- they are NOT Photoshop-enhanced photographs. Photographs are NOT embedded or layered in these paintings (not that there's anything wrong with that-- it's just not my process). I print high resolution, 300 dpi, archival pigment prints using archival 300 pound cotton rag, which gives better color saturatation and therefore depth. Most of my paintings are intended to be larger and can be printed onto cotton rag watercolor paper using archival pigments, or onto canvas in a process called Giclee printing. Spending time painting in the Catskill Mountains in the 1990s made me a witness to the toxic strain oil painting places on the environment as well as the health of the artist. I have a congenital skin condition that rebelled against oil paint and solvents. I tried grinding my own paint and using pure oils. My skin said NO. After searching other media to replace oils, i discovered that painting digitally fully engages me as a painter. As a space-challenged NYer, using a computer gives me a studio right in my small apartment. I can even take my laptop anywhere and plein aire digitally. And, there is no color adjustment necessary for perfect prints. As technology integrates into our culture, digital art will continue to gain acceptance, making my choice of medium a non-issue. The scalability of the images makes them versatile for many environments, from greeting cards to murals to the right size for your home or business. Please Note: The paintings displayed on this website are small, low-res (72 dpi) versions of the originals and are only intended for viewing online. It's ok to send or share them, put them on your desktop, enjoy them! Just no commercial use, that is copyright protected. Past: Gallery artist: 301 Houston (1983-84) Gallery artist: Leonora Datil (1993-94) I was born in Park Slope, Brooklyn in 1952. My family appreciated art, so we went on frequent trips to the nearby Brooklyn Museum. There were many accomplished artists in my family, including my aunt. My mom always painted and my grandma had a baby grand piano and played Chopin. I started playing the piano at age 3, taking lessons at age 5, while studying dance professionally. I started painting oil-on-canvas at age 13 and majored in fine art in high school (Reginald Flood, teacher and mentor). I graduated with honors from the University of Buffalo in 1975 with a degree in Literature, preparing for a career in publishing. But something was missing. So I studied drawing and painting at the Art Student's League of NY from 1977-79 (studied with: Thomas Ferguson, Robert Beverly Hale, Gustav Rehberger, and Marshall Glasier). I credit my highschool art teacher, Reginald Fludd, for giving me the encouragement to be a lifelong artist. And my dad. Series have included: My backyard, NYC backyardscapes 1977-1980. Assorted oil paintings, drawings, pastels, and sculpture from 1980 to 1988. Paintings from the Catskills (1988-89), Swirl (1990-93), Liquid Bones (1992-94), Flying World (1994-96), Woodstock and Saugerties (2007-2009) NYC Green Spaces (2005-2012). Artists that inspire my work include: Cezanne, Franz Mark, Andre Derain, Edgar Degas, Wayne Thiebaud, Richard Diebenkorn, Edward Hopper, Reginald Fludd (my highschool painting teacher), Diana E. Birnbaum (my aunt), and all the brilliant contemporary representational painters. Future: My plan for the future is to find gallery representation so more people can experience my work. I would like to show my paintings full size, printed on rag and/or canvas in limited editions. Further, I would like to encourage donations for the care and preservation of the NYC parks and gardens, starting with Tompkins Square, my local park and muse. Contact Information Lauren Edmond lauren@laurenedmond.com 151 1st Avenue #109 New York, NY 10003 212-979-1996: cell and voicemail For more information about these prints, please visit the ordering information page on this website.