By Claire Paradis/Special to the Arrow Lakes News
It was a kind of dark and slightly stormy night last Thursday for the opening of Jim Lawrence’s exhibition at the Hidden Garden Gallery in New Denver.
The gallery’s wooden cabin door opened into a brightly lit space with Jim Lawrence’s gorgeous photographs, live music and happy people.
The small space was filled with the vitality and beauty of local wildlife. Each picture was a lively portrait of the animals that inhabit the Kootenays along with us.
Living in Meadow Creek gives Lawrence lots of opportunity to shoot his subjects. “I always keep two cameras on the seat next to me,” he said, “just in case.”
Lawrence’s photographs gave a sense of the splendor of nature as well as the inner life of his subjects. Using a telephoto lens he is able to see and capture their subtle expressions.
Jim Lawrence has been photographing his whole life, but the advent of digital technology brought him back to the art with renewed enthusiasm about eight years ago. Printing your own colour [film] photographs is too costly, said Lawrence, but with laser printers it’s much easier.
Lawrence prints on both a flat foam board as well as stretched canvas, which gives the prints a paint-like texture.
Jim Lawrence’s photographs were at the Hidden Garden Gallery July 18-23. His work is also showing at the ALFA Guild Gallery in Nakusp for two weeks beginning with a reception on July 22 starting at 6 p.m.
