Elizabeth Lazeren - Lone Boat on Green-Blue Water

I live and paint on the seafaring island called Cape Cod. It's a wild place of whales, big skies and wind swept dunes. When working my canvases, I use memory, experience, and imagination. My paintings have a clarity of mood, but a vague sense of place. Thinking that less is more, I distill an image in my mind while I'm painting it. I choose elements of painting that are "signature" components of my work: strong use of obliqes, tonal color, transparent layers, a solitary feeling and big energizing skies. The painting process is a journey of choices. Sometimes I make the choices quickly, knowing what strokes come next. Other times I am analyzing, and my process slows down. Sometimes I am asked “why” I became a painter. I explain that when I was 9, I was enrolled in Saturday art classes at the Wadsworth Antheneum. My parents thought my drawing was good and drawing was something I was always doing. At the museum, I saw great paintings for the first time. I stared at them over and over and many became "favorites". After each art lesson, I would explore the museum and seek out the Hudson River landscapes, the huge “Lady of Shallot” painting and a Van Gogh self portrait. Paintings became my imaginary world, yet as I look back, I realize that I was probably absorbing them, mesmerized by their visual impact. As a youngster, I always seemed to be drawing, long after other children stopped drawing. And I kept on doing it and then I painted, and that was amazing, and so I continued painting. I fell 'in love' with the process and never looked back. This experience and the alchemy of painting is why I make art. And if I am asked "how" I became an artist, I credit my parents. They paid attention to my "strong suit" and introduced me to an art museum at a young age......and that's all I needed. Finished paintings and works in progress are yours to view in my studio. Visitors are always welcome. Please contact me at 508-349-6821 to arrange a visit or view my work at several galleries.