Laura Wiens
Dec. 2009

Growing up in picturesque Carmel-by-the-Sea among the area’s natural beauty, a plethora of art galleries, and witnessing the occasional artist painting on a sidewalk or along Scenic Drive is what I believe inspired me to become an artist. I always had a deep appreciation for art and never even thought that I would attempt anything beyond the colorful flower chains I would draw for my grandmother as a child or the chicken scratch of a few imaginary human faces I’d draw on a napkin while waiting for food at a restaurant.

I spent little time in a structured family setting during my teen years when my mother moved us from Carmel to Cape Cod, Mass. I rebelled at the drastic life change and left home for the first time starting at 14. At 18 I became a parent, married and had three more children. By the time I was 30, I was a single mother. Leisure time for me meant a 20-minute soak in the bathtub. I attended college during the day while my kids were in school, helped them with their homework in the evenings and did my own homework late into the night once I put them to bed. I never had time to learn about me or explore who I was or what I was capable of art wise.

In 2002 I remarried and was given a chance to share some of the child-rearing challenges. As the kids grew up and set off on their own paths, it was only then that I had time to listen--and answer--a quiet voice inside me that told me to try painting. I’ve always thought oil paintings were so beautiful with the vibrancy of color and the shininess and texture.

One quiet Sunday afternoon in the spring of 2006 I went to the local Michael’s craft store and bought what I thought I would need: a few small canvases, a starter kit of oils, some thinner and several brushes. I took the items home, set up shop on the dining room table, made sure no one was home so I could spare myself some embarrassment and tried to paint a flower in a vase. It was horrible. I buried it deep in the garbage can in the garage. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, I thought.

Painting Chateau Julien in Carmel Valley during the 2010 Carmel Art Festival.

I contemplated quitting but thought that maybe I should try using a picture of something for reference. I painted another vase with flowers. It didn’t turn out half bad. I was encouraged and thought, hmm, maybe this is worth messing around with for fun. For the next several Sundays, I painted small images in the quiet of my bedroom while my husband was at work. He would come home around midnight, flip on the master bathroom light and be delightfully confronted with my evening’s creation. These little paintings I did turned out to be actually quite nice little gems of work—the Lone Cypress, Point Lobos images, even one of my husband sitting on a rock at his favorite beach on the Oregon coast.

One day I got brave and decided that I wanted to paint something to cover a large wall in our cathedral-ceilinged living room. The three-foot-by-four-foot “San Juan Capistrano” came out rather well for a novice and we framed it. My husband thought it would be fun to have a “showing” of my new-founded talent. I indulged him this silly idea and while at our party, a couple was admiring the newest piece and asked if I could paint an aspen scene for their cabin house. A four-foot-by-five-foot “Sunrise in the Aspen Forest” was born and I made my first commission--$900.

We were living in Colorado Springs at the time and visited Carmel often. So when we decided it was time to take my “show on the road,” we took a week and went to Carmel (just a year after I set brush to canvas for the first time) with a couple of my pieces, naively hoping to find a gallery that might carry them. To our surprise, we succeeded and that summer, when my youngest child graduated from high school, I went and lived in Carmel for several months to paint and sell my work in a small gallery in a beautiful courtyard a block off of Ocean Ave.

I’ve been creating and selling vibrant, heavily textured oil paintings ever since then and am constantly challenging myself with new subject matter (i.e. dog portraits are a big thing in Carmel!!).

Besides showing work at my own gallery at High Ground Gallery & Studio in Crescent City, my work can also be viewed at Tea Rose Galleries in Carmel and Crescent Harbor Gallery in Crescent City.