Sonia Lawson R.A.
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
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