Sonia Lawson R.A.
Rune Rock
My interest is to solve the difficulty of using recognisable imagery, yet having the freedom of abstraction, evading the strictures of narrative, yet still using, say, a boat, a tree, a figure if I want to, and if I use them it is important to simultaneously try and break the bounds of familiarity.
Rune Rock. circa 1996 38x37cm Oil on Canvas
Grieving Women, 1991. Oil on canvas 153cm x 153 cm
Sonia Lawson is an artist whose work constantly resonates with the new, her images transforming a commonplace activity into an epic event.
Born in the Yorkshire Dales into a family where both her mother and father were well respected painters, Lawson has developed her own idiom in paint, yet has never been afraid to embrace new forms and ciphers for her work. This much-needed monograph traces her very personal style from the semi-abstract early paintings, moving into her vision of artist as witness: a darker period recording injustices on canvas. From this sombre palette she turned to raw pigments and a personal mythology, with rosy sculptural images of warmth and light.
Lawson’s more recent work is a sort of Rosetta Stone, at times intriguingly arcane and inscribed with living, jostling beings, depicting the elemental. It is a rich tapestry and with a sense of the absolute, of something writ in stone which lends a positive determinism to the ongoing journey. This monograph simultaneously traces Sonia Lawson’s academic and personal history, illuminating her outlook and her dramatic and diverse oeuvre.
Published Monograph:  Sonia Lawson Passions and Alarms
Lavisly Illustrated 144 page colour Monograph author:Nicholas Usherwood
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All images copyright: Sonia Lawson
Above photograph taken at: Sonia Lawson Paintings, Passions and Alarms. Mercer Gallery, Nov 2015- Feb 7th 2016
Portrait of my Mother, Muriel Metcalfe 1981, oil on canvas, 206 x 168 cm
  Born 1934: Wensleydale Died 2023: Buried in Redmire Church, Wensleydale.
“Drawing stands like the mountains, the rest is like passing weather.”
2023 NEWS: Garrison Town Triptych will be on show at the ROI Annual Exhibition: November 2023, The Mall Galleries. The Royal Institute of Oil Painters. The Mall, London. SW1
Garrison Town, 1981-1984, oil on canvas 247 x 304 cm
Sonia Lawson R.A.
Rune Rock
My interest is to solve the difficulty of using recognisable imagery, yet having the freedom of abstraction, evading the strictures of narrative, yet still using, say, a boat, a tree, a figure if I want to, and if I use them it is important to simultaneously try and break the bounds of familiarity.
Rune Rock. circa 1996 38x37cm Oil on Canvas
Sonia Lawson is an artist whose work constantly resonates with the new, her images transforming a commonplace activity into an epic event.
Lawson’s more recent work is a sort of Rosetta Stone, at times intriguingly arcane and inscribed with living, jostling beings, depicting the elemental. It is a rich tapestry and with a sense of the absolute, of something writ in stone which lends a positive determinism to the ongoing journey. This monograph simultaneously traces Sonia Lawson’s academic and personal history, illuminating her outlook and her dramatic and diverse oeuvre.
  Sonia Lawson Passions and Alarms
Lavisly Illustrated 144 page colour Monograph author: Nicholas Usherwood
Grieving Women 1991, oil on canvas 153x153cm
Purchase Online Purchase Online
Portal to Shangri-La 2011 oil on canvas.  
All images copyright: Sonia Lawson
Portrait of my Mother, Muriel Metcalfe 1981, oil on canvas, 206 x 168 cm
  Born 1934: Wensleydale Died 2023: Buried in Redmire Church,                    Wensleydale.
“Drawing stands like the mountains, the rest is like passing weather.”
2023 NEWS: Garrison Town Triptych will be on show at the ROI Annual Exhibition: November 2023, The Mall Galleries. The Royal Institute of Oil Painters. The Mall, London. SW1
Garrison Town, 1981-1984, oil on canvas     247 x 304 cm