[Laura Culic](https://spencegallery.com/laura-culic)’s distinct aesthetic is built on her use of cold wax painting to represent natural landscapes, imbued with abstracted elements, where she subverts our expectations of this uniquely Canadian genre of wilderness painting.  Culic uses innovative mediums and precise mark-making techniques to add body, depth, and transparency to her paintings.  At times, she completely shifts the perspective of a landscape by presenting a reflection in a stream, lake, or body of water.  Laura’s paintings reveal an intuitive process of adding abstract touches, combined with a sense of restraint, by building layers, then subtracting by scraping and using oil sticks, charcoal, wax crayons, and graphite to create further marks.

As an award-winning painter, Culic’s work is found internationally in many corporate, private, and government collections including the Art Collection of the Government of Ontario. She is an elected member of the Ontario Society of Artists and a recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Grant.  Her artwork has been recognized on different occasions as Best in Show and Best in Painting.

Culic received her fine arts training at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and has honed her craft for over 30 years as an illustrator, mural painter, and fine artist.   She currently works from her studio in Toronto.

**Laura’s work will next be presented at the AAF Boston in October 2025**



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#### How did your relationship with Spence Gallery begin, and what has working with Joan and her team meant for your artistic journey?

I first met Joan in person when she attended the opening reception of a solo show of mine in Hamilton, in the company of two artist friends of mine. For several months prior, I had been admiring the social media posts by Mary Karavos and Laurie Skanzos of their work being exhibited internationally by Spence Gallery. So I was delighted when they showed up with Joan and introduced me! And even more delighted when several months after that, she proposed that she represent my work. 

Being represented by Spence Gallery has been my first opportunity to have my work exhibited internationally on a regular basis. It has been an amazing and rewarding experience, to have my work so sought after and popular - particularly in the U.S.



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#### Spence Gallery is known for making art accessible while maintaining quality. How do you think about creating work that can connect with both first-time art buyers and seasoned collectors?

I hugely appreciated that Spence Gallery is willing to exhibit a wide range of my work, from paintings that are completely non-objective, to my more traditional, semi-abstracted landscape work. It feels as though the range of clientele at Spence - whether seasoned collectors or those just beginning to collect - are inspired by the gallery and by Joan to follow their hearts, and be adventurous in selecting work that speaks to them. Because I feel this way about the gallery, I feel quite unrestrained in pushing the boundaries a bit with my own work, and relatively free in exploring various paths in creating.



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#### Walk us through your creative process—from the spark of an idea to the finished piece. How do you balance intuition with intention?

Every painting begins with large gestural marks across the surface of the panel. My painting is in response to the natural environment - inspired mainly by my observations of light, reflections, depths in water, patterns of leaves on the wind, and pond life - I never work from photos, nor do I do any preliminary sketches. I find it too constraining to plan an outcome, and even if I do, that often changes throughout the process. My approach is an exploration of mark making, combined with washes and layers of colour, eventually scraping back through layers to reveal underlying colour and create a sense of the history, texture, growth and decay found in nature, in a marsh, along the shoreline or on the forest floor. 

I love to be in the “zone” - feeling the joy and delight of simply making marks and moving paint, and suspending all judgment and critical thought. I alternate these spells of unrestrained, “what if”-type painting, with sitting down for quiet contemplation and evaluation of what the next steps should - or could - be


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#### Tell us about your relationship with materials and process. How do you decide what to work with, and when do you know a piece is finished?

I work with oil paint, mixed with cold wax medium. The cold wax speeds up the drying time, and allows for the build up of layers of paint, which can be scraped or gouged or drawn into in later stages. I also mix in solvent to create washes, powdered pigment or chalk for more texture, and make marks with oil sticks, pastels, wax crayons and graphite. Each step of my process is made in response to the previous mark or application of paint. It is only when I am satisfied that the painting is its own environment, with a sense of areas that might possibly be sky, reflections, or growth in wetland or forest, rich with texture and colour, do I feel the work to be resolved. 


Spence Gallery Featured Arist: Laura Culic

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