CHEYENNE — At Laurie’s Shop of Treasures on 17th Street, you’ll find walls decorated with paintings of landscapes and seascapes, along with shelves and displays of trinkets and souvenirs.
In the middle of the room is a glass enclosure where you’ll likely find Laurie M. Christensen creating the art that fills the room.
He purchased the business around seven months ago and is converting a portion of it into an art gallery to feature local artists.
“The whole idea is that Wyoming and Cheyenne artists have a place that they can sell work that’s not in the $5,000 price range,” Christensen said. “That’s the idea. There’ll be reasonable art that people could come get for their homes.”
Christensen has been painting for more than 60 years. His work is inspired by places and people around him. He has lived in Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and California, and moved to Wyoming around eight years ago. The scenes and animals from those environments are reflected through his work.
“I have been around somewhat and seen some beautiful scenery, including Wyoming and California — a lot of California,” he said.
He paints landscapes of places he’s been to, but that isn’t always the case. Often, his paintings are inspired by photos he finds online or ones a customer has sent to him to create for them.
The first painting he ever sold was a depiction of the Tetons, somewhere he had never been. He was 16 and living in the Kansas City area when he made the sale, which was also his first oil painting.
“I didn’t even know about the Tetons,” he said, “but that’s what they were wanting me to paint.”
Since then, Christensen estimates that he has created and sold thousands of paintings. It usually just takes him a couple of hours to create one of the smaller 8-by-10-inch paintings that he typically charges $40 for. He’s also painted murals, including ones for Italian restaurants depicting Tuscan and Mediterranean scenery.
He describes his work as realistic impressionism. Thick brushstrokes create a visible texture on the canvas and resemble the works of Robert William Wood, one of Christensen’s inspirations.
But he said his ultimate inspiration is the customer. He paints what people want him to paint.
“Making money is not the absolute driving force for me,” he said. “But I love to paint; it’s kind of what I do.”
Christensen enjoys taking photos of customers holding the work they purchased to remember the art and the people who buy it.
He said he’s met people from all over the world who come through his shop to browse and purchase his art.
“I always tell people ‘I didn’t know who I was painting it for at the time, but if you picked it out, I was painting it for you.’”
Laurie’s Little Shop of Treasures was previously The Wahl Shop of Little Treasures. The shop began selling Christensen’s work around a year and a half ago. When he bought the store, he added many of the paintings that had been in storage at his previous studio.
“The idea of turning this into an art gallery ... it was pretty obvious that I would do something like that when I bought it,” he said.
However, the business will not convert fully to an art gallery. He said it will remain a tourist attraction, with novelty items, including goods from local vendors.
Currently, he’s looking for local artists to show their work in his new gallery so that it’s not just his work. He’s open to showcasing various artistic mediums, including sculpture, photography and paintings. Artists will not be charged to exhibit but will pay a 40% commission when their art is sold.
He anticipates hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the gallery sometime in May. The business is located at 104 W. 17th St. in downtown Cheyenne.
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