About the Artist
Biography
"I have nature, art and poetry; and if that is not enough, what is enough?" Vincent Van Gogh
Signature Member – American Women Artists
Founding Member – Montana Painters Alliance
Laurie’s paintings most often reflect the beauty of the northwest; the remote land that she calls home. Having lived most of her life in the west, the wilds and back country of Montana or the desert of Arizona when she was young, her focus in art tends to be about place – about landscape, and about the people and animals who have lived close to the land over time. She is drawn to the history and stories that unfold in still wild and natural places; and to the resilient, ever changing beauty of the natural environment.
Stevens began her career as an artist in LA where she spent 12 years working in the entertainment industry as a scenic artist and muralist. She worked on many movie, TV, theme park and theater productions, as well as for Walt Disney Imagineering during the creation of EPCOT Center in Orlando, FL.
The transition then from 30’ high murals to 30” high canvases, and from gallons of acrylic paint to artists' oil paints in tiny tubes was daunting! However, having worked in such large scale early on helped her see how important strong, graphic design is to the success of any painting.
In the 80’s Stevens returned to Montana, her birthplace, where she currently lives and works. She has lived remotely most of that time – in the Dearborn Canyon out of Augusta and only a few miles from the Scapegoat Wilderness, and then on the ranch that she and then husband Tom owned, out of Cascade. Their closest neighbor there was a mile away. Just recently, Laurie has moved to a rural area a few miles south of Great Falls where she still has deer in the yard daily; and sometimes wild turkeys, pheasants, fox and other wild critters.
Laurie has been juried in to quite a few national shows with American Women Artists, National Oil & Acrylic Painters Society, The Portrait Society of America, as well as gallery shows around the country. She has paintings in the permanent collections of the Booth Museum in Cartersville, GA., C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, MT., Marty Skylar, past Principle Creative Executive and International Ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) in Glendale, CA., Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. and The USAF in Washington, DC.
