John Lawrence is a trained painter living in the Okanagan Valley. In the 1970s, he worked for an extended period in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where he shared a studio with other artists. He works with oil, acrylic, pencil, charcoal, and often experiments across media. His paintings capture not only realistic figures and objects but also emotion and physical exertion through the play of light and colour. Some of his works he calls “unfinished”—sketched in such a way that they leave space for the viewer’s imagination. His paintings invite viewers to look deeper, to understand, and to sense the subtle vibrations conveyed through his brushstrokes. At times he depicts simple acts such as gathering stones from water; at others, he records salmon fishing or portrays a person experiencing homelessness. Each subject is rendered with care and compassion, in its own time and place.
From his student years onward, he has exhibited first in Vancouver and Calgary, later in other parts of British Columbia. He has participated in numerous group shows, contributed for many years to the operation of a gallery in Chilliwack, and is now actively engaged in exhibition projects in the Okanagan. His works are included in private collections in Canada, the United States, England, and Australia.
For the Ore Mountains exhibition, he selected two pencil drawings and an oil painting. All three works resonate with themes from Rege Kienast’s story. The oil painting portrays a vanished woman who reappears like a spirit at a crucial moment. At the same time, it can be read as a reminder of the many missing Indigenous women in Canada who have never been found. The two drawings explore cultural appropriation and the boundaries of imagination—showing how our imagination travels through objects into unknown realms.