Laura Hunt, Featured Artist from Texas, USA.

Laura Hunt nurtures her artistic soul.

My childhood on a central Texas farm, while idyllic in many ways, lacked any hint of art education. Once a larger world of art books, galleries, and museums, opened up to me, I soaked up whatever knowledge I could.

My English degree served me well in my career in marketing and graphic design, but on my own time, in spurts, I nurtured myself as an artist, working in textiles, pastel portraits and figures, cut paper illustration, and greeting card design.

A major life change in 2013 gave me the impetus to bid that career goodbye—with gratitude, and commit to a full-time studio practice.

Since the beginning of 2019, I have focused on contemporary figurative painting, which melds my love of abstraction and my fascination with humankind.

After several years of creating non-objective abstract work, I responded to the insistent tug at the sleeve to create a new body of work, one that would have at its core the human figure and the universal stories it could tell.

But I didn’t leave abstraction completely behind. It still appears in the ambiguous but vaguely familiar backgrounds that provide my archetypal figures a home.

Cohesive body of work with emphasis on simplification and symbolism.

These themes bind the work together: human relationships and emotion, social issues and empathy. Outlines and the simplification of details lend a symbolic quality to my figures. High contrast often appears in the work, with light casting shadows and defining the face and figure, further distilling the human’s essence and narrative.

Laura Hunt's process.

My primary medium is acrylic paint, but I frequently include patterned paper scraps or vintage maps to animate the picture plane. Watercolor paper, wood panel and corrugated cardboard are my favorite surfaces.

Inspiration comes from several sources.  I sketch from life in a tiny sketchbook I keep handy to record interesting postures. Theaters and gatherings provide venues for filling my sketchbook with drawings of people—from the back. I rummage through family photos to unearth grainy black and white images of unidentified relatives and quirky strangers from yore. I’m not above sneaking a snap of someone in a compelling gesture and add it to my photographic library. Friends are willing to pose for me to further fill my bank of references. And sometimes pure imagination stimulates the creative process. All are fertile ground for my practice.

My influences include anonymous folk and tribal artists of Africa and the Americas, and the Abstract Expressionists. I deeply admire the figurative works of David Bates for its bold stylization, and David Park for his confident expressiveness. They motivate me to bravely paint my own path.

Reach Laura Hunt or follow her on social media sites.

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram or on my website's blog.

My work is available for purchase and you may also subscribe to my monthly email newsletter and receive occasional event invitations.

To view other artists who have been featured on my website in the last 2.5 years, please visit the Guest Artist page.

I am grateful for all the talented, productive artists and creatives from all over the world (photographer, author...) who have appeared on Louise's ARTiculations. If you are a creative and would like to be featured in this space, please contact me.

Many of them remain in my circle of friends on social media sites, and some, I have even met in person.