Three by Three: Guest Artists in Focus

QUESTION 2.    Your “cotton candy shading” approach creates a striking push–pull between playful color and darker space. What technical choices make that balance work without tipping into either sweetness or heaviness?

• ANSWER 2.   I use ultramarine blue for the darkest areas, cadmium pink for medium shades but I’m also working in small amounts of skin tone or lighter colors the whole time to help blend and tone it down in areas that I don’t want a lot of contrast in.

Jeremy Lawson
Painter

MEDIUM:    acrylics on canvas

BIO:    I was born and raised in Houston,TX, and I’ve always felt drawn toward artistic expression. When I was 12, my mom left and became homeless which caused a battle with depression for me for a while. After years of struggling I decided it was time for a change, and I began pouring all that emptiness and raw pain onto a canvas. That’s something I feel like AI will never be able to recreate because painting from the heart is something the audience is able to see and feel and when it’s absent, it feels empty.

INSTAGRAM:   @Jeremys_Art_Labyrinth

QUESTION 3.    Many of your compositions place a vivid subject against subdued, cool-toned backgrounds with very little black. What role does restraint play in making those colors feel luminous rather than loud?

• ANSWER 3.     I usually put a drop of a color opposite on the color wheel to give it more of a pastel tone for my backgrounds. I’ll add a lot of this color if I want to darken which gives me more depth without being too pronounced.

QUESTION 1.    You talk openly about integrating darkness rather than avoiding it. How does that philosophy actually show up while you’re painting — is it a planned intention, or something that emerges as the image develops?

• ANSWER 1.    I always plan out some kind of dark negative space or dark subject matter, I’ve always felt drawn to darker art, but then I try to blend that with something a little more playful and colorful. The part where they come together is usually off the cuff.

“Dancing in the Shadows”, 2025. Acrylic on canvas, 18”x 24”

All copyright and reproduction rights are reserved by Jeremy Lawson.
Artwork may not be reproduced in any form without the artist's express written permission.

CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL VIEW

CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL VIEW

CLICK IMAGE FOR FULL VIEW

“Stevie Niko”, 2025, Acrylic on canvas, 16” x 20”

“The Earth Experience”, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 16” x 20”