Briar Rose Laurie, born in 1987, grew up in Queenstown, NZ. Being the niece of the renowned artist, Mark Thomas, Briar was introduced to oil paints at a very young age. Over her youthful years, Briar excelled in art at school, winning multiple awards including the end of year excellence in art.

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After years of painting for friends and family, Briar entered her first art exhibition at the age of 14. In this exhibition Briar not only sold her painting but won the viewer’s choice award for her acrylic-on-canvas portrait. Over the next few years, Briar specialised in oil-on-canvas portraits, loving the challenge of capturing people’s expressions and emotions with her brush. After entering multiple competitions and having a great success in selling her work, she pursued her dream of becoming a full-time artist.

After leaving school, Briar held her first private exhibition at the age of 19. The exhibition was in Arrowtown and showcased some of her portrait paintings. Most of the portraits were of friends and family and to Briar’s surprise the exhibition created a lot of hype and all artwork was snapped up. Over the next few years Briar entered artwork into local galleries and exhibitions and won multiple awards, including twice winning the up-and-coming local artist award at the Arrowtown Autumn Festival.

In 2010, Briar followed one of her other passions and went travelling through Africa. On returning to NZ, Briar held her second exhibition at the Sofitel in Queenstown, displaying both oil-on-canvas paintings and charcoal drawings of her favourite places and people from her travels. Again, the exhibition was a success, selling most of the paintings in the first day and the rest over the duration of the exhibition.

In 2016, Briar held her latest exhibition at The Spire in Queenstown. This exhibition featured Briars love for wildlife, predominately NZ birds. Capturing the natural beauty and iridescent colours found in nature has inspired Briar’s most recent paintings.