Laurie Bedard

Laurie Bedard

Location: Canada




Laurie Bedard is a Canadian emerging abstract artist and self-described late bloomer who began painting at 56, following a long career in social services and mental health.


After decades spent listening to people's stories and exploring the complexities of human experience, she found herself drawn to another language: colour, texture and paint.


Bedard's abstract work explores memory, emotion and the histories we carry beneath the surface. Layers are central to her developing visual language. Colour is built up, muted, interrupted and partially concealed, while marks and imperfections are often allowed to remain as evidence of what came before.


She is particularly drawn to surfaces that feel weathered, distressed or lived in and to the quiet beauty of things that have acquired a history. Her recent work has become increasingly restrained, emphasizing subtle relationships between colour, texture and form rather than dramatic gesture.


Her process is intuitive and exploratory. Paintings develop through addition and subtraction, covering and uncovering, with each layer responding to the one beneath it. She is interested in the tension between what is visible and what is hidden, allowing the viewer space to find their own associations within the work.



Beginning an artistic practice later in life has given Bedard the freedom to approach painting with curiosity rather than expectation. Her work has become a visual journal of that exploration, reflecting an ongoing fascination with what remains, what changes, and the beauty that can emerge from accumulated layers of experience.







Portfolio:

Colours

This portfolio reflects my developing exploration of colour, texture and the histories held within a surface.

My abstract work is built intuitively through layers, allowing earlier marks, colours and imperfections to remain partially visible beneath what comes next. I am drawn to surfaces that feel weathered and lived in, and to the quieter tension between what is revealed and what remains hidden.

Alongside these works are paintings inspired by the natural world: a sunset, stones, trees and landscape. Even when the subject is recognizable, I am less interested in reproducing what I see than in exploring its colour, texture, atmosphere and emotional impression.

Although the works move between pure abstraction and references to nature, they share the same curiosity: what happens when we stop trying to describe something precisely and allow colour, surface and feeling to tell part of the story instead?

As an artist who began painting later in life, this portfolio is also a record of discovery. I am still experimenting, still refining my visual language, and increasingly interested in the space where abstraction, memory and the natural world meet.

Remnants “Remnants”

Layers of colour and texture accumulate across the surface, leaving traces of what came before. The work explores memory, imperfection and the quiet beauty found in what remains visible after change.

Surrender “Surrender”

A restrained exploration of colour, surface and layering. Earlier marks emerge through subsequent layers, creating a sense of history and inviting the viewer to consider what may exist beneath what is immediately visible.

Purple Clouds “Purple Clouds”

Inspired by the shifting colours of sunset, this work sits between landscape and abstraction. Rather than depicting a particular place, it captures the atmosphere of a fleeting moment as recognizable forms begin to dissolve into colour.

Where Colour Collides “Where Colour Collides”

Natural forms become a starting point for an exploration of shape, texture and repetition. The familiarity of stones is retained while colour and abstraction shift the work away from literal representation.

Still Rooted “Still Rooted”

A tree provides the recognizable structure for a painting concerned as much with atmosphere and surface as with subject. Organic forms and layered colour blur the boundary between observing the natural world and responding to it emotionally.