Collection: Lawrence Bowden

"I build my work on a gold foundation to capture the play of light when viewed with varying sources of illumination. The medium almost glows in direct, artificial, or candle light. The aim is to elicit a dynamic quality from the picture plane so that it is both lively and still depending on the light and the viewer’s angle of vision — an effect, unfortunately, that cannot be captured with a digital image."

Lawrence Bowden is an emeritus Professor of Religion & Culture and the husband of Lynchburg artist, Karen Bowden. He began painting in 1997 as part of an academic sabbatical in which he studied with internationally recognized Zen painter, calligrapher, and scholar, Kazuaki Tanahashi. He views his painting as part of his Zen practice. However his work has been curated by jurors such as Carter Foster of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Margot Norton of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and Doug McClemont, writer for the SAATCHI Gallery and regular contributor to ARTnews. He opened his studio at Riverviews Artspace in 2008 and shares a website with Karen, bowdenartworks.com.