Lara Cobden
Rooted in a central theme of recollection and sense of place, my paintings are informed by observation, memory and dream. They are a subjective and individual response to the natural world around me, calling on an imagined, coveted past that is unreal; a magical realism. Pulling between the chimerical and the familiar - I hope there is both a stillness and fluidity in my work; in the ordinary, a sense of reverence. Paintings evolved from remembered fragments and casual snapshots shift between misty and precise, perceived reality and imagined narratives.
I like to inhabit and explore this ‘nowhere’ or in-between place and try to collect and recreate that residue of experience; like recording details, grasping at the gossamer fabric of waking from a dream.
I am intrigued by the alchemy of paint and its facility to express voiceless emotion through intuitive choices of colour, composition and brushwork.
Recurring themes of love and loss and the desire to capture the essence of experience - a fleeting moment, ephemeral and yet resilient in its presence, are what inspire me to paint.
I like this quote from Charles Baudelaire - “Extract the eternal from the ephemeral.”
The thread pulling my work together is about 'coming home', belonging; or conversely a sense of ‘unbelonging’.
Educational and Residencies
1992-1995 BA (Hons) Fine Art Painting - University of Brighton
2016 Artist Residency - Cill Rialaig Project Kerry, Ireland
Memberships
2017 Became a Member of the Arborealists - a collective of artists who specialise in painting trees
Selected Awards
2019 ING Discerning Eye - Chair's Purchase Prize - Mall Galleries London
2019 Westmorland Landscape Art Prize - Exhibited Shortlist - Rheged Art Centre Cumbria
2019 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition - Preselected - Royal Academy London
2019 Jackson’s Open Paining Prize - Longlisted
2019 New English Art Club - Preselected - Mall Galleries London
2019 2nd Prize Winner - Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - Mall Galleries London
2018 Wells Arts Contemporary - Winner of Parker Harris Mentoring Award
2018 Sir John Hurt Art Prize - Exhibited Shortlist - Holt Norfolk
2017 ING Discerning Eye - Exhibited Shortlist - Mall Galleries London
2017 Royal West of England Academy - Exhibited Shortlist 165th Annual Summer Exhibition
2017 Awarded The Artist Editor’s Choice Award - SWA Annual Summer Exhibition - Mall Galleries
2017 Sir John Hurt Art Prize - Exhibited Shortlist - Holt Norfolk
2016 ING Discerning Eye - Exhibited Shortlist - Mall Galleries London
2016 1st Prize winner - Sir John Hurt Art Prize Holt Festival Art Prize - Norfolk
2016 Society of Women Artists - Exhibited Shortlist - Mall Galleries London
2016 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - Exhibited Shortlist - Mall Galleries London
2015 National Open Art Competition - Exhibited Shortlist - The Royal College of Art
2015 1st Prize winner - Paint Out Wells - En Plein Air Competition
2015 The Painted World - Exhibited Shortlist - Saatchi Art Los Angeles
2012 Holt Festival Art Prize - Exhibited Shortlist - Holt Norfolk
2008 Norwich Castle Open Art Show Norfolk - Exhibited Shortlist - East Anglian Art Fund
2008 Norfolk Contemporary Art Competition - Exhibited Shortlist - The Forum Norwich
Selected Exhibitions
2019 “If we opened people up we’d find landscapes” Curated Landscape Exhibition Fairhurst Gallery
2019 Arborealists at Musee Collégiale Sainte-Croix de Loudun France
2019 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - Exhibited Shortlist - Mall Galleries
2018 Wells Arts Contemporary - Exhibited Shortlist - Wells Somerset
2018 The Arborealists – Mariners Gallery St Ives
2018 Sir John Hurt Art Prize - Exhibited Shortlist - Holt Norfolk
2018 Arborealists and Guests – featuring Paul Nash - Black Swan From Somerset
2018 Arborealists and Other Painters - John Davies Gallery Gloucestershire
2018 ‘Fairground’ Exhibition - Fairhurst Gallery Norwich
2017 ING Discerning Eye - Mall Galleries London
2017 Pre-Selected for the 2018 Columbia Threadneedle Prize
2017 SWA Annual Summer Exhibition - Mall Galleries London
2017 Pre-Selected for the Royal Academy Summer Show
2016 ING Discerning Eye - Mall Galleries London
2016 Holt Festival Art Prize - Holt Norfolk
2016 SWA Annual Summer Exhibition - Mall Galleries London
2016 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - Mall Galleries London
2015 PAiNT Exhibition - Undercroft Norwich
2015 Pre-Selected for the Columbia Threadneedle Prize
2015 National Open Art Competition - The Royal College of Art
2015 Germination Chelsea Fringe Exhibition Espacio Gallery London 2015
2015 Short listed - Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - Mall Galleries London
2014 Anteros Selected Open Submission - Anteros Gallery Norwich Norfolk
2013 Halesworth Arts Festival - The Cut Suffolk invited artist in the 2013 NOA exhibition
2013 National Open Art exhibition - short-listed NOAC exhibition
2013 Metaphysical Objectivity in Comparison with Realism – Lloyd Gill Gallery Somerset
2013 Wonder of Nature – Store Street Gallery Bloomsbury London
2012 Holt Festival Art Prize - Juried Exhibition Holt Norfolk
2012 Wey Gallery Summer Show - Godalming Surrey
2012 East Anglian Sea/Landscapes - Cambridge Contemporary Art Gallery
2012 Red Dot Gallery Spring Show - Holt Norfolk
2011 In Bloom - Wey Gallery Godalming Surrey
2011 Joint Show -Corte Real Gallery – Paderne Algarve Portugal
2010 Shades of Summer - Wey Gallery Godalming Surrey
2009 Summer Show - Cambridge Contemporary Art Trinity Street Cambridge
2008 Norwich Castle Open Art Show Norfolk
2008 NCAS Juried Exhibition - The Forum Norwich