Instructor Laurie Harden

Laurie Harden

Instructor

Oil Paintings, Pencil, Charcoal, Pastel

Raised in Morris County, N.J. in an artistic family with three sisters, Laurie attended Kansas City Art Institute and majored in Painting. In 1973 she transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, R.I. where she majored in Illustration studying under Mahler Ryder, Panos Ghikas, and Roger Pontbriand. Ms. Harden was graduated from RISD with a BFA in 1976.

She currently works as an art instructor & freelance illustrator. Some of her clients have included Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, N.Y. Daily News, N.Y. Times, McGraw-Hill, Harper and Collins, Grosset and Dunlap, Pearson Learning, Scholastic, Cricket Magazine Group, Dell Magazines & Simon and Schuster.

Ms. Harden is a member of The Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, Allied Artists, the American Artists Professional League, The Pastel Society of America, The Pastel Society of N.J., & the Art Centre of NJ.

Galleries that currently represent her are The Swain Gallery in Plainfield and the Gallery at River’s Edge in Denville, NJ.

She has exhibited at the Allied Artists Juried Exhibition and the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Show at the National Arts Club, The AAPL Show at the Salmagundi Club, The Broome St. Gallery, and The Pen & Brush Club in N.Y.C., The Cathedral Arts Show in Jersey City, Macculloch Hall and the Atrium in Morristown, The Gerald R. Dodge Foundation Artist Initiative Exhibition Space & Gallery at Fairleigh Dickinson University, The Papermill Playhouse, The Blackwell Street Spring Fling, Morris County Art Association Shows, Sussex County Arts and Heritage Counsel Shows, Barrons Art Center, the Ridgewood Barn Gallery, The Wilson School, The Hilltop Country Day School, The Mountain Lakes Country Club, The Morris Museum, and the Hilton Head Art Association International Juried Show among others in both group and solo exhibits.

Among the numerous awards that she has been fortunate to receive are BEST IN SHOW WEAA’18, BEST IN SHOW PSNJ ’07,THE CATHERINE LORILLARD WOLFE ART CLUB AWARD AAPL ‘18, 3RD PLACE Art Centre of NJ ’18, AWARD OF EXCELLANCE Art Centre of NJ ’15, BEST IN CATEGORY/PORTRAITS & HONORABLE MENTION PSNJ ‘18, SECOND PLACE PSNJ ‘13 &’14, BEST FIGURATIVE PAINTING & BEST ILLUSTRATION Boonton Art Walk ‘14, MERIT AWARD Art Centre of NJ ’13 &’14, MERIT AWARD PSNJ ’08, HONORABLE MENTION PSNJ ‘09, TERRY LUDWIG AWARD OF EXCELLENCE ’09 at the Guild of Creative Art, MEMBERS AWARD WEAA’18, HONORABLE MENTION WEAA’16 &’11, BEST IN SHOW at the Morris County Art Association, BEST IN SHOW at the PCFL Art Festival in Franklin Lakes, N.J., BEST IN SHOW at the Morris County Art Association Fall ‘02 show, FIRST PLACE at the MCAA Winter Show ‘03, FIRST PLACE at St. John the Baptist Show, HONORABLE MENTION and PEOPLES CHOICE awards at the Sussex County Arts & Heritage Show 1999, The GEORGE W. MORVILLE SR. AWARD 2000, FLYING PIG AWARD ‘01 and the DAVID H. WRIGHT AWARD ‘03 also at SCA&H, HONORABLE MENTION at Tewksbury Historical Society Show ‘07, HONORABLE MENTION at Somerset Art Association Pastel Exhibit ‘07, and THE JOHN R. GRABACH AWARD from the American Artists Professional League. Her work is known both nationally and internationally, being in the collections of. the National Cancer Institute, Sloane Kettering Hospital, St. Barnabas Hospital, N.J. Governor Brendan Bryne and the late Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.


More:

  • Favorite Artists– Frank Frazetta
  • Favorite Painting to View- The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse
  • Favorite Painting to Instruct- Monet’s Bridge
  • Favorite Music for Painting- Indie Rock
  • Hobbies- Painting, Reading, anything Science-Fiction Fantasy
  • Fun Fact- I have taken off in an airplane more times than I have landed in one.