Lauren Forcella was practically dragged into art, and nobody was more surprised than she at the wealth of talent just waiting for her to pick up a brush. Forcella had left her first career as a hydrogeologist and was focused on a writing career when a writer friend kept bugging her to join a creative process group at a local art studio. Finally, she suggested that Forcella might be able to paint the illustrations for the children’s book she’d just written, and Forcella thought, “Hmm, maybe I could do some cool first-grader art.” What a surprise when she picked up a brush! Forcella had a latent talent she had no idea about and knew in that moment her life would change. She showed the paintings to another friend who promptly rented Forcella an art studio, surprising her with the keys two days later. Twenty-seven years later, Forcella has not stopped painting. Forcella gets her inspiration from nature, her “forever muse”. “Nature saved me growing up,” she says. “I spent many hours alone walking barefoot in forests and resting in magical places that I found. The feeling was one of exceptional presence and connection, with everything around me intense and radiant, yet also restful and loving.” Nature is still this way for Forcella and this aliveness or “supernature'', is what she strives to bring to the canvas. In her distinctive impressionistic style, Forcella uses classic oils in a wet-on-wet technique that com-bines contemporary impressionism with hints of expressionism and plein-air. Her paintings are drenched in bold colors and alive with movement and impasto brushwork. The thick brushstrokes not only add dimension but give an emotional feeling to the work. Wet-on-wet is also called “direct painting” or “first coup” (from the French “a premier coup”). In this style, each section of a painting is completed at first pass. Where Forcella places a brushstroke is where she intends it to stay. There is no drying and reworking, and when she does rework, it is in the moment, wet on wet. Forcella loves this fresh direct style because it translates the emo-tional connection she experiences in nature. She hopes people will feel that emotional connec-tion and “fall deeply and urgently in love with Earth.”

Statement
"My paintings are love letters to our very alive and deeply intelligent planet."