Sonia Lawson R.A.
1960s
From the mid 60s to the mid 70s
I felt myself to be an artist of
conscience and accountability;
a witness.
“Lawson is concerned with the
actual quality of brushwork.
There is something deliberately
public and oratorial about her
paintings, though they are
also, and paradoxically,
domestic.”
1970s
Works of that period are from a
limited palette, concentrating on
the gravity of the subject matter,
eschewing beguiling colour as
inappropriate to the case.
1980s
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
1990s
2000 to present
My recent scoring of the surface,
making runes with the brush handle
in the paint and cutting into the thick
layers with a blade are beginning to
take on a primitive, basic clarity,
while the paint is a sophisticated,
crafted surface worked on over a
long time. The combination is a
positive piece of building.
Now all subject matter can hold its
own subjective reality and I am
currently working within the broad
scope which this allows.
“I don’t believe Francis Bacon has done anything more disturbing”
- Carol Weight, Lawson’s tutor at the Royal College of Art,
discussing Sonia Lawson’s painting ‘Figure at Dawn’
Figure at Dawn
c.1966 - 67, oil on canvas, 183 x 153 cm
Separation at Dawn
1970, oil on canvas,
153 x 122 cm
Homage to Molière and Watteau
1981, oil on canvas, 198 x 153 cm
Currently I want the paint to have
its own indulgence; oil, pigments,
colour, honed and wrought - not just
gestural notations, but something
made and ‘built’: growing and filling
out like a fed thing.
Shore
1994, oil on canvas,
89 x 169 cm
Notes from a Secret Diary
2005, oil on canvas,
91 x 71 cm
Sonia Lawson R.A.
1960s
From the mid 60s to the mid 70s
I felt myself to be an artist of
conscience and accountability;
a witness.
“Lawson is concerned with the actual
quality of brushwork. There is
something deliberately public and
oratorial about her paintings, though
they are also, and paradoxically,
domestic.”
1970s
Works of that period are from a
limited palette, concentrating on
the gravity of the subject matter,
eschewing beguiling colour as
inappropriate to the case.
1980s
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
1990s
2000
to present
My recent scoring of the surface,
making runes with the brush handle in
the paint and cutting into the thick
layers with a blade are beginning to
take on a primitive, basic clarity, while
the paint is a sophisticated, crafted
surface worked on over a long time.
The combination is a positive piece of
building.
Now all subject matter can hold its own
subjective reality and I am currently
working within the broad scope which
this allows.
“I don’t believe Francis Bacon has done anything more disturbing”
- Carol Weight, Lawson’s tutor at the Royal College of Art,
discussing Sonia Lawson’s painting ‘Figure at Dawn’
Figure at Dawn
c.1966 - 67, oil on canvas, 183 x 153 cm
Separation at Dawn
1970, oil on canvas,
153 x 122 cm
Homage to Molière and Watteau
1981, oil on canvas,
198 x 153 cm
Shore
1994, oil on canvas,
89 x 169 cm
Notes from a Secret Diary
2005, oil on canvas,
91 x 71 cm
