FAIRHOPE, Ala. — By popular demand, Jean Lawrence has agreed to mount a one-person exhibition of her paintings at the Fairhope Unitarian Fellowship through June 4. The opening reception for the show, “Inner Landscapes,” will be held April 8, from 3-5 p.m., at the Fellowship, 1150 Fairhope Ave., across from the Baldwin County Satellite Courthouse. The public is cordially invited to attend.

Lawrence has served seven years as the chair of the Arts Committee and at last has acceded to oft-made requests for such an exhibition.

She received her bachelor’s of arts degree in comprehensive fine art and art education from Northern Illinois University. She worked as an art therapist for 11 years in Illinois, and then studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1973-1979.

She moved with her husband, Ed, to Fairhope in 2000.

Lawrence writes that she is “inspired by the local landscape, whose wetlands and water are reminiscent of the Midwest. When I first saw the wetlands of the Mobile Bay area, I knew that I had found a new home. The landscape here continues to inspire me for its beauty, its starkness and its flatness. I look for and find beauty in places where many other turn their backs.”

Lawrence states that her paintings are of two types, both emanating from her inner landscape.

“The more recognizable landscapes are metaphorical: nothing is as it appears to be, and life and what it consists of is amorphous and unpredictable. The abstract works are about my personal inner vision. I hope that the viewer can project himself or herself into the paintings and can find a personal meaning in them.”

Lawrence’s work has been exhibited at the Bay Rivers Art Guild in Daphne, the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope where she has won a number of awards, and at several galleries in Mobile and Fairhope.

Her wetlands paintings were shown at the opening reception of the Earth Matters Environmental Resource Collection at the Daphne Public Library in 2003 and at the opening reception of the Five Rivers Environmental Center in Spanish Fort.

The reception on May 8 will include music by the Unitarian String Quartet with refreshments provided by Joyce Burkhart. For more information, call (251) 929-3207.