Canadian Artist
Lauren Daae
Creating is a passion that just doesn't extinguish, and when the meaningful pieces of my life can reach someone else - that's what I'm after.
Moving to the farm as a small girl imprinted on my heart the difference of a rural community, and so I thrive on reinterpreting small-town prairie themes now with boldness.
My Creative Journey
I'd say my creative direction points to classic western subjects with a slightly contemporary take, blending abstract and realism. This manifests the themes of heritage, farm culture, and relationships in my work - seeming to always bookend with horses and cattle. My identity as an artist traces from childhood dreams and many of them lead with the sound of galloping hooves, the smell of coffee and porridge, the chaff rising from a grain auger... and that list goes on to be told through brushstrokes.
I've also loved experimenting with the mediums I work with themselves. I got my start painting with coffee and moved to working with watercolour, then charcoal (made from hockey sticks and pucks!) and acrylic paint. Recently I've pushed forward with the expanded vocabulary of a full colour palette in oil paint. What has remained consistent has been my signature style of abstract-realism. I enjoy the challenge of creating intricate, recognizeable detail that blends into loose and expressive marks.
Artist Bio
Lauren Daae is from south-east Saskatchewan - a fact that becomes more apparent when looking at her work. Her subjects have featured very unique mediums: from brewed coffee to charcoal made from hockey-sticks and even hockey pucks. Her style highlights the contrast between refined detail and freely expressive mark-making. Lauren has worked with many different mediums, diving into bright colour and pronounced strokes that always lean toward being characteristically "painterly". Recently she has turned her focus to oil painting - incorporating her signature loose and splashy style, mixed with fine detail.
A self-taught artist, after graduating high school she pursued a career in visual art and launched into the graphic design world. After over ten years of success in the industry, the experience of digital editing gave way to her passion for fine art and she exchanged her keyboard and mouse for brush sets.
Drawing much inspiration from her rural surroundings, she works from her studio in the local Community Centre and takes a limited number of commissions each year. She and her husband Daniel both grew up on the farm and appreciate the close-knit communities of the prairie provinces. Currently living in the village of Torquay, they enjoy raising their four children in a faith-filled, hockey-playing and musical home.
