Laurence Short
1964–
Laurence Short in a self-taught British artist born in 1964, in Wigan, in the county of Lancashire. A year into his life, his family moved 320 miles south to the coastal town of Folkestone, with France a mere 21 miles away across the English Channel. Short spent many happy childhood years climbing on and around the White Cliffs of Dover, fishing, and beach-combing. This is where his love of the sea was born.
While Short was naturally good at art from a very early age, at 20 years old he became a firefighter. This profession seems incongruous to being a painter, but his vocation would mold Short for the rest of his life and be the catalyst for all of his art going forward. For 30 years, Laurence Short served as an operational firefighter in the Kent Fire and Rescue Service, with art taking a back seat as he worked hard on the job and off it, keeping fit by scuba diving, sea fishing, and snow skiing. He was lucky as a diver, getting to visit and dive some of the most wonderful locations on the planet, including the Maldives, the Red sea, the Florida Keys, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean, as well as some challenging diving off the coasts, with powerful tides and low visibility. The rewards, however, were immense, as the seabeds were littered with wrecks from two world wars.
READ MORE +It was the beauty Short witnessed beneath the surface as well as while skiing high above in The Alps, Rockies, and Dolomites, that gave him an intense love of and respect for nature, and the realization that we all have a responsibility to look after our delicate ecosystem and the wonderful creatures with whom we share the planet.
When Short retired from the Fire service after 30 years, at age 50, he needed to decompress, heal his mind, and kick back. That’s when he left England, moved to Türkiye, and spent the next 5 years in a pair of board shorts, kitesurfing every day in the warm sunshine. This paradise didn’t make Short completely happy, so he went home and joined the Coast Guard in a small coastal town where the North Sea meets the English Channel. At this point, having lived a full life, saved many lives, and seen so much beauty in the world, Laurence Short returned to creating art.
Short started to develop a unique style of art he calls ‘Triptik’ that relies on bold colors and shapes, and is inspired by the wonders of nature he saw and stored away in all those memories and experiences from his thrilling past. He started to paint the wonderful animals we are so lucky to share our planet with and quickly realized that painting soothed his soul. Art became Laurence Short’s therapy as dark thoughts melted away while he escaped into the paintings, and the more intricate his artwork became, the more he relaxed.
Triptik art is a painting that can be viewed from three different distances. When a viewer sees a Laurence Short painting from afar, they will see the whole image in bright, vivid colors, but as they move closer, it becomes clear that the painting is made up of various shapes, and there is more hidden within the artwork. Getting extremely close reveals the true wonder and magic of a Triptik painting. That’s when a viewer sees that hidden within the paintings are individual shapes filled with unique patterns, mythical beasts, sea creatures, snakes, insects, and other wild animals, as well as inspirational quotes.
There are hidden meanings within the paintings of Laurence Short and his art serves as a metaphor for the planet. At a distance, individuals cannot see what is happening. It’s only when we get up close and personal that we can see the full picture—a planet that’s warming up with glaciers melting, oceans rising, ecosystems disappearing, and plastics choking waterways.
Short wants his artwork to elicit positive emotions in viewers and to make them think, and encourages collectors to, “Put some color in your life, hang a rainbow on your wall.”
Accomplishments
Laurence Short has done several solo art shows and exhibited in many combined exhibitions. He has also been invited to display his Triptik art in Rome, Florence and the Netherlands.
To inquire about collecting more artwork by Laurence Short, attend one of Park West’s online auction weekends or contact a sales associate at either sales@parkwestgallery.com or (866) 995-0904 ext. 4.
