Photograph of Artist LAURIE MACMILLAN
LAURIE MACMILLAN
Santa Barbara, California - United States



Original Artworks (4)

Laurie Macmillan; Basin And Range, 2021, Original Painting Acrylic, 31 x 31 inches. Artwork description: 241 The artist is a lifelong lover of the outdoors and the American West.  Basin and Range reflects her fascination with mountains.  The painting has a UV protective varnish, and it is in a black wood floater frame with a narrow gold front edge. ...
Laurie Macmillan
Original Acrylic Painting, 2021
31 x 31 inches (78.7 x 78.7 cm)
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Laurie Macmillan; Alone Together, 2019, Original Painting Oil, 13 x 13 inches. Artwork description: 241 Alone Together is an abstract sunset, done in oil mixed with cold wax.  The artist used a palette knife, not a brush.  It is in a black wood floater frame with a narrow gold front edge. ...
Laurie Macmillan
Original Oil Painting, 2019
13 x 13 inches (33.0 x 33.0 cm)
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Laurie Macmillan; Silence, 2016, Original Painting Acrylic, 20 x 16 inches. Artwork description: 241 Silence depicts the mysterious desert.  The artist grew up in the flat Midwest, and has always been inspired by mountains and desert.  The painting is done in warm colors and rich texture, and is in a black wood floater frame with a narrow gold front edge. ...
Laurie Macmillan
Original Acrylic Painting, 2016
20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
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Laurie Macmillan; Melt Off, 2015, Original Painting Acrylic, 31.5 x 31.5 inches. Artwork description: 241  Laurie MacMillan, abstract landscape, mountains, warm colors, red ...
Laurie Macmillan
Original Acrylic Painting, 2015
31.5 x 31.5 inches (80.0 x 80.0 cm)
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Artist Statement

Born in Greece, and having also lived in Israel and Nicaragua as a young child, I never felt as if I belonged in the Illinois of my childhood. I was irresistibly drawn to the West, where spaces were large and choices were expansive. To me, that landscape was exotic, and the geology was fascinating.

I was also driven to explore the world. In 1973 I visited several third world nations and saw horribly overcrowded slums, realizing then that overpopulation was the world’s worst problem. Travel was my focus for thirty years, along with hiking in the jagged, dramatic mountains of California’s eastern Sierra.

Now, painting has become my new travel, and an even more rewarding path to discovery. Although largely self-taught, I attended a weekly abstract painting workshop for several years, and have participated in numerous other workshops. Probably the artistic movement that has influenced me the most is abstract expressionism, and I love its depictions of pure energy. Tonalist paintings have always appealed to me; realism does not. I’m most interested in the play between color, texture and shape, and I paint with both ends of the brush, a palette knife, combs, sponges, seed pods and my fingers. Abstract compositions emerge gradually through the application of many layers on the canvas.

I paint to convey my passion for our multi-faceted natural environment. Sometimes I use depictions of empty space to highlight what we are losing in a world growing ever more crowded. If the viewer feels an emotional response to my work, then I have succeeded.
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