Theresa Lawless is a self-taught artist residing in the Napa Valley. She has had a life-long interest in art and in nature and has melded these interests in her larger than life floral paintings. As a young adult, she primarily studied drawing while working towards a degree in Botany. She abandoned her pursuit of art (and botany) as a career to take a more practical path in business. However, she has always found a way to integrate art into her life working as a docent at a local museum, heading a fine art insurance program, taking art classes and workshops and continuing to draw and paint.
In 2009 she was diagnosed with cancer, which prompted an examination of her life and art came up as the one thing that was truly unfulfilled. Since that time she has been devoting herself to her art recognizing that in her heart she has always been an artist. In 2015 she launched her art publicly in the juried Open Studios Napa Valley show.
Theresa presents a “bee’s eye” view in her floral paintings. From this vantage point, the viewer is intimately involved in the sensuous allure of the flower and the intricate beauty of this little universe. The sole purpose of the flower is to seduce the pollinator and this seductive power comes through in her paintings. For this reason, she calls her paintings “Floratica”.
The subjects for these paintings are found in Theresa’s garden, on neighborhood walks, on hikes, in friend’s gardens and sometimes in flower shops. Theresa works from photographs that she takes of her subjects. She is always looking for a dramatic play of light and shadow. To accomplish this she takes dozens of photos from multiple positions capturing light at different angles. She paints in a photo realistic style such that it almost seems possible to feel the texture of the petals and catch a sweet scent.
