Laura Lawrence is from New Jersey. She earned a BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. Then, she mastered color mixing and theory while working in the print textile industry for 20 years in New York City.

Laura and her husband came to Carson City in 2018 seeking a community that would be near their children living in California, and that offered a vibrant community with yoga, book clubs and accessible mountains for hiking and skiing. She belongs to two book clubs and several hiking and skiing groups and is an active member of the NAA board, serving as past Program Chair and present Membership Chair. and that offered a vibrant community with yoga, book clubs,

Her most recent gratifying education is through Zoom classes with master watercolor painter Yong Hong Zhong, who teaches out of Oregon. Laura appreciates that when he is critiquing a work, he can digitally overlay the student’s painting image with the color, shape, etc., that he is suggesting to be considered in the painting’s composition and the student can immediately see the effect the change would have on the work.

Currently, Laura works primarily in watercolor. She loves that it doesn’t smell and is non-toxic. However, she is also drawn to the transparency of the medium, the brilliant colors, and the fact that she can take it with her and work anywhere — something that is hard to do with sculpture. While Laura does paint people, animals, and still life, which her collectors enjoy, she gravitates towards painting landscapes to focus on the colors, shapes, and dramatic light patterns, providing an opportunity to abstract the composition. Whether it be painting or addressing landscape design on their property with her husband, Laura’s awareness of texture and depth is revealed — the influence of her earlier interest in sculpture.