Painting with oils can be a time consuming process because of the length of time it takes the paint to dry.
It can be done quickly in one sitting in a painterly manner or painstakingly slowly as the old masters did it in laying down layer after layer of thinned paint to create depth and character to their realistic portraits and scenes.
Laurie Landry, uses some of the old masters techniques in her paintings that are hanging in the Station House Gallery this month. In many of her paintings she combines oils with shellac to achieve the feel and look of watercolours.
Some of Landry’s work was inspired by studying the techniques of the old masters in France.
In December 2010, she completed training in life drawing at Studio Escalier in Paris, where Timothy Stotz and Michelle Tully passed on their training that could be traced back to the old masters such as Michelangelo and Raphael.
“My biggest highlights of that month in Paris were training at the Montmartre studio that was once the studio of Suzanne Valadon and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec; and being able to sketch-study in the Louvre everyday,” Landry says in her biography.
Landry, who was born in Calgary and raised in Prince George, currently lives in Vancouver. She has been interested in art since she was young, preferring to draw and colour with crayons, and make sculptures with Play-doh as a young child.
Her first real introduction to art was attending the Island Mountain School for the Arts in Wells as a pre-teen in the late 1970s.
Edward Epp was the instructor, coaching the aspiring artists in watercolour painting.
Landry excelled at art in high school and went on to attend Emily Carr University of Art & Design for a semester.
After a long break working as a graphic designer, she return to Emily Carr to complete the Fine Arts Techniques program in 2008 and become a professional painter.
Her painting and training is ongoing with the mentor program and in-class workshops.