Lani is a native of Colorado now living in Drake, a small town nestled in Big Thompson Canyon just down from Rocky Mountain National Park. Her work is known for simple shapes, values, and burshstrokes, expressing a myriad of subject matter including animals, still lifes, landscapes and figures. Her goal is to evoke an emotional response to a subject reflecting her belief that all things, living and non-living, are equally significant and essential to the whole.

She studied with Kim English at the Art Students' League for four years, and painted with Richard Schmid for six years at the Loveland Academy of Fine Art. She has taught several workshops and classes. Her work has traveled much farther than she has as it hangs in collections in Australia, China, Belgium and from Canada to Mexico.

Lani Vlaanderen was invited to the "Hearts of the West Show" at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth in October 2010. Her hawk painting was purchased by Laura Bush there in 2009.
She also was invited into the "Representing the West" in Pueblo, September 2010. One of Lani's paintings was accepted into the "50^th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Animal Artists" at the San Diego Natural History Museum, Sept 1 - Oct 31, 2010.