About Lori Watt
Painting Collections
Stone and Concrete Series
Lori creates heavily textured and rustic surfaces on canvas, linen and wood structures. Through this process, the finished paintings resemble the natural occurring effects from the elements on stone or concrete as a part of the aging process organically over time. This artistic process is clearly demonstrated in her recent painting titled “Stone At Fort Negley” 2019, a painting depiction of the ancient stone at Fort Negley Park, an urban greenspace now occupying the old battleground of Fort Negley, the largest inland masonry that was built during the American Civil War in Nashville, Tennessee. This painting was inspired by Lori’s recent trip to Nashville where she travels to on a regular basis.
Rain Series
In this series Lori’s vision was to try to create a sense of calm in our very busy and sometimes chaotic lives. Through this original technique and process Lori paints translucent layers over her underpainting leaving the presence of the image beneath yet subtlety obscured to try and quiet the viewers mind. This is clearly shown in her paintings, ‘Calm After The Storm’ 48”x48” 2017 (SOLD) and ‘Peace After The Storm’ 48”x60” 2018 (SOLD).
Wild Horses
Lori has always been passionate about horses because of their large, majestic and powerful presence. Her passion for horses stems from her first job as very young girl working with horses in Alberta. In these past years Lori has sold her beautiful paintings of wild horses such as her painting ‘Wild Horse Of Sable Island’ 2017 and other paintings as well between 2016-2018. She is very excited to show on her new website and Instagram of some of her newest works from this series such as; ‘Horse Play’ 2019 and ‘Wild Horse In Winter’ 2019. These paintings provoke emotion and Lori has been able to capture the wild horses natural beauty and spirit.
Winter Series
This series consists of some of Lori’s paintings that have a warm winter feel and fall into the category of some of her abstract expressionism and figurative works. Lori started this collection of paintings because of the cold winter temperatures this past year in Canada. In these paintings, Lori has created a lot of depth by using both thin layers of paint and heavy texture and are some of her more bold works such as; ‘Winter Garden’ 2018, ‘Winter Bull’ 2019 as well as her soon to be released Winter ‘Buffalo Soul’ 2019.
Educational Background
Lori presents a background in Commercial Art, 1981 (Commercial Arts Award). She graduated in Fine Art - Design Arts with a Major in Painting at MacEwan University (Grant MacEwan) in Edmonton, Alberta in 1983. She then moved to Long Beach, California to further her education and graduated in Fashion Design at Brooks College in 1985 where she studied clothing design and manufacturing as well as textile design. During her program there Lori received two American Scholarships that helped fund her education during her years there. In her final year, Lori apprenticed as a jewellery designer in downtown Los Angeles in 1985. She then moved back to Canada and pursued a professional career in the fashion industry including jewellery design. Her fashion design career allowed her to travel to many parts of Canada and the United States while marketing her resort and sportswear collections. Lori then had the opportunity and talent to launch her own clothing line under her designer label ‘Seascapes International’ in 1987-1989 while manufacturing and living part time in Bangkok, Thailand 1987-1988. She sold her designer spring/ summer and fall/winter collections to buyers at the major trade shows in Toronto and Montreal in Canada and at the New York Pret Show in New York City in the United States. Lori later continued to further her art education at the Faculty of Extension (University of Alberta) in Edmonton, AB. 2007-2009. Lori is married and they have two adult children and she continues to paint professionally for several years from her home based studio.
Gallery Representation
Lori’s paintings have sold through gallery representation and commissioned works as well. She has also sold privately to clients and Art Collectors throughout Alberta and her work has also been featured in publications including Best Homes Magazine and Opulence Magazine in Edmonton, AB.. Lori’s most recent gallery representation includes the Gerry Thomas Gallery in Calgary, AB. Her paintings have also been on display at several gala/events throughout Alberta such as; Soaring With Song music event at The Winspear Centre 2009 in support of Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in Edmonton, AB., LOOK 2014 a fundraiser for ‘Contemporary Calgary’ in Calgary, AB., Gallery Showing at the Faculty Of Extension (University of Alberta) group show in Edmonton, AB., The Winspear Centre for the Opera Nuova music event and fundraiser in Edmonton, AB., The Timm’s Centre for the Arts for Opera Nuova music event and fundraiser in Edmonton, AB., Fairmont Hotel MacDonald for the Minerva Foundation Fundraiser in Edmonton, AB., Holt Renfrew in Edmonton for their spring/summer store display, Bavaria BMW music and arts event in Edmonton in support of Autism and the Jasper Park Lodge gala event and fundraiser in support of the Heart and Stroke Foundation in Jasper, AB., to name a few.
Community Involvement
Over the years, Lori has donated some of her paintings to several organizations/charitable fundraisers. She has generously donated 100% of the proceeds from the sales of her artwork raised during those events as noted above through live and silent auctions as she strongly believes in giving back to the community in any way you can.