Lorraine Molins was born in London and studied at Chelsea School of Art (1971-1975) and Goldsmiths College, University of London (1975-1976).
Molins is an abstract painter known for her vibrant gestural works with bold uses of colour and sweeping form, exploring visual, spatial and auditory sensations. Her practice involves cataloguing responses to both the man-made and natural worlds. A painting might begin as an exploration of a particular colour, the investigation of the silhoutte of a tree, the shapes of waves on a shoreline, characteristics of some passing inclement weather, the visualisation of notes of a clarient in jazz music, even the movement of bodies in crowds, and fast moving cars on a motorway, or just a simple play of light.
Molins’ interest in the movement of a paint across canvas has led her to work in sequence, using multiple panels to create suggestions of looking through one window into another. Her forms advance and recede within the shallow depth of the picture plane where line and space interact, creating a sense of jumping in and out of space. Molins endeavours to capture qualities of a particular space or environment result at times in gestural arcs often repeated, and motifs which might also suggest human forms. But, music and its imporvisation is what remains a constant informant, an interest Molins shares with artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Henri Matisse, as well as the artists associated with Abstract Expressionism and American colour-field painting.
Soon after graduating she received the prestigious Arts Council Award and her work has been exhibited regularly since 1975. Recent exhibitions include, Chichester Cathedral, Plein Air (2025); Hotwalls Tower, Portsmouth Guest Artist, solo show (2024); Artel Contemporary (2024; Women in Art Space, Portsmouth Artspace (2024); Diptychs, Triptychs & All, New Park Centre, Chichester (2023); What Lies Beneath, Oxmarket Contemporary with Antel Group (2023); Art Space Open Studios, Portsmouth (2022-2024), AAF Hampstead & Battersea, NoonPowell Gallery (2022 & 2019); Partridges Gallery, Chelsea, London, solo show (2020).