ARTIST INTERVIEW: LAURA PEDLEY
Laura Pedley
Please introduce yourself. What sparked your interest in art?
My family are all creative, particularly my mum and my late nan. They always encouraged me to create, I spent endless hours growing up painting sunsets, building models, and doing craft projects. I find myself here now, working as an artist, painting abstract landscapes, and still thinking back to those endless creative projects and the seeds of ideas sown in my childhood.
What drew you to landscape painting?
After a long break through my twenties, I began painting again in the chaos of early parenthood. I would walk out in the hills near my home as a way to find some peace, and then paint as a way to process the challenges this new season brought. Landscapes have always settled me, they make sense to me, even though I would describe my paintings as landscape-inspired rather than actual landscapes.
Time Together Makes It Clear
What is it about the landscapes in your paintings that you would like to capture?
My practice has evolved over time as a way to express my experiences in the landscape, the deep inhale and exhale of breath and inner calmness I found in these places, and a desire to recreate those experiences for others to share. I’m looking to capture the essence of a place, the feeling it provokes in me, rather than a literal representation of a place.
How do you use colour to evoke a feeling? What is your favourite colour palette to use?
I’m well known for my love of rich blues and soft pinks, sometimes deep teal-greens. Not obvious choices for landscape-inspired artworks but these are the colours that evoke in me those same feelings I’m looking to capture in my work.
In Silence I Am Restored
Tell me about one of your pieces and describe the process from start to finish of creating it.
A painting called ‘You Feel Like My Home’ is a recent favourite of mine. As with all my work, I build up lots and lots of thin layers to create the composition. I usually start with an idea of how it will end up, but the brush strokes for each layer really do dictate where the next layer will go, and often the finished artwork looks quite different to how I intended it to look! This piece was created alongside several others with the same colour palette. The works seem to speak to each other, there’s a natural connection between them that I really enjoy.
How does your artwork represent you as an individual?
People tell me that my artwork feels like me; that I’m a peaceful person to be around, just like my work is peaceful. I feel that’s all I could hope for really, to be able to create something that feels so very much like it comes from who I am, and couldn’t really come from anyone else.
I Think Of You Often
Out of all your artwork, which piece are you most proud of and why?
I’m really not sure I can choose one piece! I think I’m always in love with whatever the most recent artwork I’ve finished is! The most recent painting is always the one that is most representative of where I’m at both creatively and personally at that moment in time. I move on to start the next piece and my heart moves forward too. I guess I’m proud of being able to be present in my practice in this way, of pouring my heart into this work but holding it lightly enough that I’m able to keep moving forward.
What has been your biggest achievement so far as an artist? Has there been any challenges?
By nature, I’m quite the introvert, and this creative journey has really challenged me to think outside the often self-imposed ‘box’. Things that have in the past felt like constraints, I now see as real strengths. I’d say my biggest achievement as an artist is that I’ve allowed myself to explore new parts of myself and how I’m wired that I don’t think I ever would had I still been working a 9-5 job. This has brought me to a place where I’m a better mother, partner, and friend than I think I would have been without going on this journey. Embracing being an artist has made me who I am today.
At Dusk We held Hands
Why do you think art is important in society?
Art helps us think outside of ourselves; it challenges us to see the world from a different point of view. I think this is so important, vital even, if, as I hope to, we are to live in a world where people matter more than systems. For me as an artist I seek to create beauty in my artwork, as I believe beauty gives us hope for something more, something better. Art inspires us.
