LARA BOWEN
Light, Colour, Time & Memory ​
I work in series, collections, or projects, depending on my mood or what has recently inspired me.
Whether it be still life in oils, abstracted colour field paintings, multiple exposure photography as a portrait of a day, or something more conceptual involving digital work, collage or text.
By acknowledging these different bodies of work, I allow myself to move between them, letting them influence each other. ​
Flowers in Vases
I used floral still life as a subject to explore themes of memory, emotion, colour, and light.
Post graduation, I trained in stained glass, later returning to paint due to its accessibility and flexibility. The influence of stained glass is still evident in my colour choices and compositions, the use of black to outline shapes, high-quality pigments, and the contrast between bright areas and shadows all aim to recreate the sensation of light shining through coloured glass.
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While the subject is simple, each painting holds complex memories of people, experiences, and conversations.
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Whether these memories stem from sadness or joy, loss or rebirth, travel or stagnation, these paintings have chronicled my past 20 years. Over time, they have become increasingly abstracted as I experiment with compositions, moving away from the traditional toward something more contemporary.
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Colourful Language
Born from a love of paint charts - all those tiny velvety squares with evocative names - and a response to how the pandemic affected our vocabulary and changed our lives, Colourful Language explores our connection with colour and our shared experiences.
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The lovechild of contemporary lingo and our emotional connection with colour. ​
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Colourful Conversations
Memory Layers
