Lorna Gerard

Married to high school sweetheart for 40 years with 4 children, largely self taught Artist Lorna Gerard has a nervous breakdown which forces her to re-evaluate her life. Years later her worst nightmare comes to life when her eldest son takes his own life aged just 27. Eventually finding light through her darkness, the artist gets through it all and learns big life lessons through the therapy of her art.

Creative since a very young child, Lorna Gerard’s artistic pursuits were always encouraged by her Mum, also a creative soul who painted in a niave style. Lorna’s sister Chris Morgan is also a recognised and sought after artist living and working in Queensland.

Lorna married her high school sweetheart Tony at the age of 19 and they had four children by the age of 27. She focused completely on her family and it wasn’t till the children were a little older that she entertained the thought of living her dream of becoming an artist. She was a self taught artist up till then, that always needed creative outlets in her life, such as teaching community art classes and leadlighting. She took part in classes with a few private tutors while her four children were young. Once she felt the children were old enough, she then made the major step of returning to college at Wantirna Tafe in 1989 for two years studying Art and Design.

Lorna says “this was a very difficult time in my life, having four children and a husband who was away for months of the year, travelling overseas sourcing product, and when he was home was working longer hours focusing on building a career foundation for our large family. We’d also moved from our home town of Sydney to Melbourne years earlier leaving all our family behind. Because of this I found alot of the time I was having to care for the four children on my own. I was also holding down two part time jobs all the while studying an art/design course. I found msyelf awake often till three or four in the morning to get my art assignments in on time. Of course all this stress gradually took its toll and I suffered a severe anxiety attack, or a kind of a mental breakdown, which I now refer to as my ‘break through’, because it taught me so much about how I needed to change, to start properly living my life as well as seeing and choosing my real priorities.”

In getting over that hurdle Lorna found spirituality, meditation and mind colour to be her lifelines.

Today, Lorna is best known for her vibrant and unique silk paintings that are not only exquisite to look at but which also reflect the artists feelings, vibrant personality and passion for life. Lorna first learned the silk technique while working for silk company Gabogrecan in the 90s. They supplied many retail outlets with Australiana silk pieces such as scarves, bookmarks, framed paintings etc. This gave Lorna a fantastic grounding in silk art and painting. Since then she’s been mastering and honing her skills in this medium. She is now considered one of Australia’s prominent and skilled artists in the Silk medium area. Lorna has won many awards, including 1st Prize at the Royal Melbourne Show for one of her silk paintings, which encouraged her to keep pursuing her art, focusing heavily on the silk medium. She now holds workshops and classes in her own art studio and has been published in Australia wide magazine publications as well as local media for her silk techniques.

Most of Lorna’s silk works feature luscious, vibrant colours with a mixture of soft and strong lines. Lorna has studied and taught art therapy and believes because of this, colour has the power to people feel truly uplifted. Within this therapy, Lorna also uses a colour therapy titled Mindcolour which helps to guide others through difficult situations as well as to give some insight and guidance for the larger questions in their lives. It can be experienced online at www.mindcolour.com

Lorna is also gifted with the ability to work in many other mediums, such as watercolour, gouache, oil, pastels, pencils… in fact Lorna has tried pretty much all mediums and loves to work in as many diverse and different mediums as possible.

Lorna faced her biggest setback and devastation in life when her life took a tragic turn of events, when in 1998 her eldest son Adam, an accomplished singer and song writer, took his own life. Adam had been suffering for five years with a mental illness, believed to be brought on by marijuana and alcohol.

“I was completely broken hearted and devastated, honestly not knowing how I was going to be able to go on. I truly felt that my life was a failure, and it has taken me many years to feel the love and joy again in my life.” Lorna believes her art was her therapy as she was able to express her overwhelming feelings through her creations. As time went by Lorna believed that she’d experienced enough darkness and didn’t wish to contribute any more of it to the world. Through her positive feelings and use of colour while creating, Lorna’a aim was to help others feel good or uplifted when viewing her art.

Lorna now knows that by helping others, it contributes to her own feelings of wellbeing and happiness. She has volunteered her services throughout the community by donating her time, art and services in many varied ways for over ten years. She’s worked with the Mental Health Sharehousing initiative for many years, she’s regularly helped cut and prepare braille paper for blind people in third world countries, she’s cooked and distributed meals for the homeless, she’s completed art murals for schools, as well as providing spiritual art for others – drawing their angels and guides. All this names just a few. At this time in her life, she’s visiting her local Aged Care Facility weekly to teach the residents art therapy.

“I have been lucky enough to be supported by my husband Tony of 39 years, my beautiful children and wonderful friends. Along with these people, it was my strong faith in a higher power as well as the belief in the continuation of life in some form, that have helped me to overcome my sadness, doubts and fears and continue to live my life to it’s full potential”.

Lorna’s latest solo exhibition in 2008 was a combined exhibition with her sister Chris Morgan at The Oak-hill Cooperative Gallery on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. The exhibition, being Lorna’s sixth solo exhibition, proved very successful. Lorna loved having the opportunity of working with her sister and collaborating on some works, for she greatly admires her sisters modern minimalist style which is so unique and different from her own.

Lorna’s lastest venture has been to join the community of Red Bubble and showcase her art to a worldwide internet audience of fellow artists and people who love art and buy it.

Lorna enthused about redbubble and its creators that have helped so many artists.. She is very thankful for the opportunity to show her work to a wider audience and also receive some healthy criticism, support and ecouragement.

Lorna says she loves her life and is very thankful for it all, even the hard times have helped her grow and become the person she is today, with plenty of room for more learning love and enjoyment for her and her family.

Lorna believes the future looks very bright and looks forward to more interesting opportunities, as well as seeing her positive, love filled art in the homes of many new owners.

Contact Details:
Lorna Gerard
Red Bubble
e-mail: lgerard1@bigpond.net.au