Loraine Stephanson holds a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Alberta, with theses in painting and art history. She has also studied at the Triangle Invitational Artist Workshops in New York with painter Larry Poons, sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, and critics Karen Wilkin and Michael Fried.

While working in Italy as a draftsman for the British Institute of Archaeology, Stephanson viewed early Renaissance fresco masterpieces, which began to inform her painting. Her work has also been influenced by Early American Modernists such as John Marin and Arthur Dove, and by the paintings of Pierre Bonnard and Paul Cezanne.

Stephanson’s paintings weave in and out of abstraction, deriving their images primarily from landscape and still life. Night sky paintings have formed a thread of her work since her student days.

Living in the Okanagan has prompted her to paint small oil studies "en plein air" which are then developed into larger scale works in the studio. Imaginary landscape elements are sometimes added into the larger paintings

Loraine Stephanson’s paintings are intended to be experienced by the viewer as visual works, unencumbered by ideology and overt “meaning”. They reflect the vernacular in their subject matter and execution, rather than the avant garde. Her surroundings, along with historical paintings, are the stimuli for her work.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

• Elissa Cristall Gallery, Vancouver, BC

• University of Alberta Art Gallery and Museum, Edmonton, AB

• Wade Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

• Wade Gallery, Vancouver, BC

• Robert Vanderleelie Gallery, Victoria, BC

• Grand Forks Art Gallery, Grand Forks, BC

• Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

• Barton Leier Gallery, Victoria, BC

• Xchanges Gallery, Victoria, BC