Lorraine Garcia on Nature, Authenticity, and Finding Meaning in Calm

In a world shaped by constant notifications, digital noise, and an ever-growing stream of AI-generated imagery, Philippines-born artist Lorraine Garcia is drawn toward something much quieter.

Through Lorraine Artsy, her contemporary art practice founded in 2025, Lorraine explores nature, peacefulness and positive emotion through tranquil landscapes and expressive compositions. Her inspiration often comes from the mountains, forests and natural environments she has encountered through her travels, particularly in Switzerland.

But her journey as an artist did not begin with a grand plan. It grew gradually from painting simply because she enjoyed it, to discovering that her work could offer other people a moment to pause, breathe and reconnect with themselves.

Alongside her professional career as an Executive Assistant, Lorraine has built an artistic identity that reflects another side of her personality: intuitive, curious and deeply connected to the quiet beauty of nature.

In this conversation, Lorraine talks about finding her artistic voice, the importance of human imperfection in an age of AI, building an artistic brand without compromising authenticity, and why calmness can have depth too.

Finding Her Voice

Your journey combines a professional career in executive support with your identity as a contemporary artist. When did you first realize that art needed to become more than simply a personal interest?

There was not really one single moment of realization. It happened gradually and very naturally. I was painting because I enjoyed it. Before long, we had more and more paintings around the house. My husband then encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone and take what I was doing a little further. From there, it simply continued to grow.

Your artistic practice is centered around calm, emotion, and quiet beauty. What personal experiences or observations led you toward this particular visual language?

I have always been drawn to nature. Mountains, particularly those of Switzerland, fascinate me because they can feel incredibly majestic and powerful, yet calming at the same time.
I have felt this very strongly during my travels in Switzerland. Being surrounded by mountains, forests and natural landscapes gives me a sense of peace, and I think that naturally finds its way into what I paint.

In a world that constantly demands our attention, why do you think people are increasingly drawn to art that creates a sense of stillness and tranquility?

I think people are being surrounded by more and more artificial content, especially now with AI-generated images and so much digital information everywhere in our agitated lives.

There is still something very human about a person creating art with their own hands. Painting involves your senses, your decisions, and you inevitably make some imperfections, but that’s the beauty of it. I think people still want that authenticity. They want to feel that there is a human being behind what they are looking at, not a machine.

Your work uses soft colour palettes and tranquil compositions. How do you translate an emotion or feeling into colour, form, and composition?

I do not consciously begin a painting by deciding that a certain colour will represent a certain emotion. It is much more intuitive for me. In that particular moment, I use the colours and forms that feel right.

I am actually very drawn to strong, colourful work. In my recent Matterhorn painting, for example, I made the mountain very prominent and used a large, striking moon that almost brightens the whole scene. I like creating something that feels peaceful yet still has a strong visual presence that captures the whole room.

The Person Behind the Art

Is there a particular emotion that you find yourself returning to repeatedly in your work? Why do you think that emotion resonates with you?

Peacefulness. I am naturally quite a calm person and, whenever possible, I prefer peace rather than conflict.

I think that is why I am drawn towards creating paintings that feel calming. I do not have a dramatic personal story that I am trying to express through my work. For me, it is much more about wanting to be at peace and creating something that carries that feeling.

How much of yourself do you intentionally reveal through your artwork, and how much do you prefer to leave open for the viewer to interpret?

I am very open to interpretation. Every person sees something differently, and I think that is one of the most interesting things about art.

It is also important to listen to the people viewing your work because sometimes they see something that you did not consciously see yourself. You can actually learn something about your own painting through another person’s interpretation of it.

Your statement describes Lorraine Artsy as a way of “slowing down” and reconnecting with emotion. What does slowing down mean to you personally in your everyday life?

For me, slowing down means making time for what you genuinely enjoy.

There is so much information and distraction around us today and we do too many things. AI lets us do more, but that increases our cognitive load, too. Painting is one of the ways I slow down because it is something I truly love.

But slowing down can also mean simply sitting somewhere, relaxing, doing nothing for a while and feeling at peace within yourself.

Art Meets Professional Life

Do you see your professional career and your artistic career as two separate worlds, or do they actually strengthen each other?

For me, they are quite different worlds.

Working in an office or administrative environment is much more structured. There are routines, deadlines, paperwork and things that need to be completed in a particular way.

Painting is almost the opposite. I have to use my imagination and make creative decisions without always knowing where they are going to lead. So, I would not necessarily say that one strengthens the other creatively. They simply use very different sides of me.

Your career has taken you through different professional environments, including the UK, the Netherlands, and Czechia. How have living and working in different places shaped your perspective as an artist?

Living in different countries broadens your mind. You meet people from different backgrounds, cultures and languages, and you learn to see things from perspectives other than your own.

I think that openness is valuable creatively as well. Art requires you to remain curious, try things and allow yourself to change. Travelling and meeting different people have definitely helped me become more open-minded in that sense.

You also have experience in PR, social media, customer communication, e-commerce, photography, Photoshop, and website-related work. How valuable has that broader creative and business experience been in building your own artistic brand?

It helps me understand that creating the art and building an artistic brand are two different things.

When you work in communication or business, you learn to think about the audience and understand who you are trying to reach. That is useful knowledge for building Lorraine Artsy.

At the same time, I never want to create a painting simply because I think a particular audience will like it or because I have to sell it. The art itself still has to come from what I genuinely want to create.

We are still learning the business side and discovering which audiences connect with the work while I continue experimenting with my own style and different techniques.

Building Lorraine Artsy

Lorraine Artsy officially began in 2025. What was happening in your life when you decided it was time to create the brand, and what did you want it to represent?

At the time, we had been living in Croatia for a while and were starting to ask ourselves what the next chapter of our lives might look like.

I began painting after a long period without doing anything particularly creative, and I started producing quite a lot of work. My husband saw how much I was enjoying it and encouraged me to take it further.

Lorraine Artsy developed from there.

I would like the brand to represent something meaningful. I want my paintings to offer people a moment away from everyday noise and perhaps give them space to reconnect with themselves.

There is a lot of contemporary art built around darkness, struggle and difficult personal experiences. Those stories can be very powerful, but they are not my story. I am interested in exploring whether calmness, nature and positive emotion can be equally meaningful.

When you think about Lorraine Artsy five years from now, what do you hope people will recognize or feel when they encounter your work?

I hope there will be something recognizable about the feeling of the work.

I would love someone to see one of my paintings and immediately associate it with peacefulness and calmness. More importantly, I want them to actually feel some of that calm within themselves when they spend time looking at it.

That is what I want the work to communicate.

What is the biggest challenge of building an artistic identity while also maintaining a demanding professional career?

Standing out.

There are so many talented artists today, and social media allows us to see incredible techniques and new work constantly. At the same time, artists are now also competing for attention in a world filled with AI-generated imagery.

Another challenge for a relatively new artist is building credibility. When you speak with curators, galleries and people within the art world, your exhibition history, your collectors and your CV all matter.

There is almost a circular problem when you are starting out. You are expected to have a strong history before certain opportunities become available, but you need those opportunities in order to build that history in the first place.

So, I know it requires patience. I have to continue creating, exhibiting, learning and doing what I love while allowing that history to build naturally.

The Bigger Conversation

Do you believe art can genuinely contribute to people’s emotional wellbeing, or is that something you prefer to leave entirely to the viewer?

I genuinely believe it can, although art will not affect everybody in the same way.

For some people, a painting can bring back memories. It might remind them of childhood, a particular place, sadness, happiness or an experience they had forgotten about.

Art can evoke emotion very strongly, and because of that I think it can absolutely contribute to emotional wellbeing for people who connect with it.

We live in an era of constant notifications, social media, productivity pressure, and information overload. What role do you believe contemporary artists can play in helping people reconnect with themselves?

I think one important thing is not to create only for validation.

Social media has made us very conscious of likes, comments and whether other people approve of what we are doing. Artists experience that too.

But as an artist, you also have to make what feels genuine to you and accept that different people will connect with different things.

One person might find an escape in a quiet landscape, while somebody else might connect with something much more intense. Contemporary artists can create those different spaces and experiences where people stop for a moment, feel something and reconnect with themselves in their own way.

What does “success” mean to you at this stage of your journey, not only professionally, but also creatively and personally?

At this stage, success is not simply about awards, recognition or becoming wealthy.

Some of the most meaningful moments happen when people see the paintings in person at an exhibition and start asking questions or telling me what they felt.

If somebody tells me that a painting made them feel peaceful, reminded them of childhood or brought back a memory of being somewhere in nature, that means a lot to me.

For me, success is when someone genuinely connects with what I was trying to express.

Is there a misconception about contemporary art that you would love to challenge?

I would challenge the idea that art has to come from darkness, personal struggle or something disturbing in order to have depth.

Even before I became an artist myself, I noticed how much contemporary art explores difficult emotions and darker parts of people’s lives. There is absolutely a place for that, and some people connect very deeply with it.

But I want to take a different path.

I want to explore nature, beauty, peacefulness and positive emotions. I do not think positivity has to mean that a work is superficial. Calmness can have depth too.

Finally, if someone encounters your artwork on a difficult or overwhelming day, what would you hope they take away from it?

I would hope it gives them a moment to relax.

Nature is something we are naturally connected to as human beings. We feel something when we are surrounded by forests, mountains, gardens or open landscapes, and that is one reason nature appears so often in my work.

If someone has had a difficult or overwhelming day, I would like the painting to give them even a small moment of calmness. Something that helps them slow down, breathe and end the day feeling a little more peaceful.

Looking Ahead

If you could describe the next chapter of Lorraine Artsy in three words, what would they be and why?

Travel. Collaboration. Recognition.

Travel, because I want to continue visiting inspiring places and experiencing more mountains, forests, coastlines and beautiful natural environments that can inspire future paintings.

Collaboration, because I would love Lorraine Artsy to work with brands that genuinely share the same appreciation for nature, calmness and thoughtful living.

Recognition, because eventually I would love the work to be recognized more widely within the international contemporary art community, whether through exhibitions, opportunities or awards. I know that takes time, but it is something I would be proud to work towards.

A Quiet Kind of Ambition

Lorraine Artsy is still at the beginning of its journey, but perhaps that is part of what makes Lorraine’s approach distinctive. There is no rush to force the work into a particular category or create a story that does not belong to her.

Instead, she is allowing the practice to grow through travel, experimentation, observation and genuine connection.

In an increasingly accelerated world, Lorraine’s work asks a simple question: what if calmness itself can be meaningful?

For Lorraine, the answer is found in mountains, forests, colour, imperfect human hands—and in the quiet moment when someone stands before a painting and simply feels at peace.

For another inspiring story on building the future of global content, don’t miss our earlier feature: Breaking Language Barriers: Jay Lohman on Building the Future of Global Content