Handpainted Modern Canvas Art for any interior
Profile of an Artist
Laura Reader
Laura Reader
Sahara Desert, Africa
Born in West Sussex, England in 1980. I was inspired in my earliest years by draftsman and watercolour artist Bruce Reader, my father, and Lawrence Henry Reader, my grandfather who unfortunately passed away a month before I was born. As I grew as an artist, I took aspects of Salvador Dali's work into my own as well as being inspired by the form and structure of Michelangelo's work.
Raised in an artistic family, my teenage years saw me winning 1st and 2nd price at an art competition sponsored by the Leominster Rotary Club in 1995. I also worked closely with the Rural Media Company by working on a talking pictures project aimed at young people throughout the UK. I qualified in 1998 at Herefordshire College of Art and Design with a National Diploma in Graphic Design.
I've worked throughout London and the Midlands developing my graphic and design skills through various media such as photography, the Internet and print media but it wasn't until 2004 that I wanted to return to traditional painting. For years I had been uninspired by watercolours, often using the paint straight from the tube. I could never create the vivid colours I was looking to achieve. I decided to experiment with acrylics. I quickly found that they worked well with the artwork I was trying to achieve.
Having a great love for people, travel and foreign culture I have travelled throughout Asia, Europe and the rest of the world, which has often inspired and influenced me within my work. My style is natural, original and vivid within a traditional recognisable landscape medium whilst creating a modern feel through the technique of diptychs and triptychs.
Since 2004 I have exhibited locally through The Feathers Gallery in Ludlow, Shropshire as well as online through ZeroOneArt and Agora Gallery in New York with many unique paintings being sold. I was also a finalist at the Liberté d´Expression contemporary underground world of art exhibition in 2006 in association with Barclays and the NSPCC.
I have also recently been accepted to exhibit through the online Saatchi gallery and have sold nationally throughout the UK as well as internationally to South Africa and Asia.
Artistically, my aim is to balance abstraction and landscape in my contemporary art, and express my love of paint and the magic of serendipity during the act of painting as well as commenting on the subject matter. The colour and energy that radiates from my canvases seem to captivate my viewers. Each painting is valuable in its own right; each painting belongs to the collection as an aspect of concept exploration. Immediate suggestions come into my head about what to depict in my art and how to proceed & execute the artwork. When I follow these suggestions, I am enthralled.