Maria Miranda Lawrence    

Maria Miranda Lawrence preserves inspirational moments in time through her distinctive portraits, fine art, and illustrations. Her expressive style captures the likeness in portraits, the essence and beauty in nature, dance or music. 

Born in the Azores and raised in northern B.C., from a young age she was noted for her drawing ability and won scholarships enabling her to begin a three year study of Fine Arts at Kootenay School of Art, Nelson, B.C. 

Maria Miranda communicates her feelings and perception through drawing, painting, and sculpture with focus on details, textures and contrasting light and dark. She explores themes in various media to express the setting and spirit of her subjects.

 In 2006, Maria Miranda Lawrence was the recipient of the Canadian national COPA award for outstanding achievement in Canadian and Portuguese Arts and Culture. Previously to this award, she was honoured to receive an invitation to "Construir Cultura -Building Culture" a week long conference held in S. Miguel, Azores on (July 6-11, 2005) which demonstrated the richness of the arts and culture of the island.  A special edition book and musical CD publication resulted from this shared experience. This wonderful event also inspired a unique project,  " À JANELA - THE POETIC SOUL" which won her the top Azores government grant in 2011. The series included contributions of poetry and lyrics from celebrated writers and portraits of singers to illustrate the classical window theme.