Lori Ridgeway
Lori Ridgeway is a landscape oil painter, originally from Alberta now living in Ottawa, Ontario. Since returning to painting seriously in 2013, she has been inspired by the forest, grasses marshes and shorelines in and around Ottawa, concentrating in her paintings on expressing patterns of line, shapes, colour, and light and shadow in the near landscape – complexity that lies below the superficial and, often, everyday notice. Her paintings have been accepted into juried shows locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Bio
Lori began her interest in art in High School, where she was active in the visual and other arts. She focussed on watercolour and ink paintings, and had several of her paintings chosen to be part of international travelling student shows, and where she won a prize for her work. Her professional career ultimately took a different turn, but she never lost sight her love for art, and spent many long hours on the edges of her international career in galleries and art neighbourhoods in North America and around the world. Her professional career was focussed on looking beyond the superficial to understand integrate the complexity of issues often less understood or overlooked, to find solutions. This has shaped her eye and artistic intellect as well.
After a long career, she immediately returned to painting in 2013, this time in oils. To make up for lost time, she has followed classes since 2014 at the Ottawa School of Art, Winslow Art Centre, and many in-person (including cross-Canada travel) and now, on-line workshops and courses by diverse top artists, understanding their best practices and philosophies and how they inform her artistic intuition. She and her husband have travelled annually since 2013 to spent in depth time in top US art centres featuring contemporary painters (including annually to Santa Fe, NM, the second largest art centre in the US).
She is a supporting member of both the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Society of Canadian Artists, as well as an active member of the East Central Ontario Art Association, the West Carleton Arts Society, and three other local Ottawa Societies. Her paintings have been accepted into local, regional, national and international juried exhibitions and group shows.
Artist Statement
I am a landscapes oil painter living in Ottawa, Ontario. However, my aesthetic was mainly shaped by my years spent in the high backcountry of the Rocky Mountains. It is where I first explicitly thought about the dazzle of light and shadow, colour and even
scent and sound that creates my sense of immediate ‘place’, which stopped me in my tracks as often as the incomparable vistas. It is now how I am inspired in nature where I
live. My creative focus is also the result of professional career immersed in making sense and order from the complexity that underlies superficial impressions.
I thus want to share how I see the patterns in landscape revealed by lines, shapes, colour and light and shadow — the very weft and warp of the fabric of our surroundings. I want to capture and amplify, through mark making and colour, that which often escapes everyday notice — the contrasts of line, and positive and negative shapes to create interest, texture and movement in my paintings. My impressions draw from branches, grasses, and shorelines, and often their reflections on flat planes of water or snow.
I paint mainly in medium or large format. I use traditional oil paints to amplify marks and shapes to draw the eye on a path that goes beyond the obvious scene, but ultimately, adds to a whole. My paintings are intended to be landscapes that are both abstract but believable.
CV
Education
Master of Arts, University of Alberta
Numerous courses in landscape painting and abstraction at Ottawa School of Art and Winslow Art Centre, WA
Numerous in person and on-line workshops with well-known Canadian artists, and numerous demonstrations and lectures by artists in Canada, US and Europe
Juried Exhibitions
2021
Winslow Art Centre (Wa, USA) Winter Juried Art Show (online)
West Carleton Arts Society (WCAS) Spring Fling, Ottawa Ontario
2020
62nd Annual East Central Art Association (ECOAA) Annual Juried Show, Belleville ON
West Carleton Arts Society (WCAS) Spring Fling, Ottawa Ontario
Society of Canadian Artists (SCA) 52nd Open International Juried Exhibition (online)
Federation of Canadian Artists (Toronto Chapter) Open National Juried Exhibition (online)
Juried Group shows
2020
WCAS Expressions of Art Fall Exhibition and Sale Ottawa (online)
Other Group Shows
2020
ECOAA Mystery of the Park exhibition and sale, Algonquin Park Visitor Centre, ON
Awards
2021
Jury’s Choice, West Carleton Arts Society (WCAS) Spring Fling, Ottawa Ontario
Media
Arabella Magazine (Canadian Art, Architecture and Design) promotion, May 6, 20232
Arabella Magazine (Canadian Art, Architecture and Design) promotion, Aug 13, 2020
Private and Corporate Collections
Ottawa area
G. Weima Enterprises, Ottawa ON
Associations
Supporting member, Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA)
Supporting , Society of Canadian Artists (SCA)
East Central Ontario Art Association (ECOAA)
West Carleton Arts Society
Kanata Art Club
Manotick Art Association
Nepean Fine Arts League
Website coming soon