About Me...as an artist....where I began....

I haven't always been an artist - although I always dabbled in it since childhood. I went to college to study classical music as a flute-player and was blessed to have studied with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra and the Akron Symphony. While the sweeping sounds of Bartok, Bach, Hadyn and Chaminade were wonderful, a class taken as a senior at Baldwin-Wallace College in Oil Painting sealed it for me, but even then, my art would lay in wait until my career was settled.

Fade Into Light, Oil on Canvas

I returned to school to study Graphic Design at a local college where I had a terror of a teacher who was fantastic and I got my first jobs in design shortly thereafter. I was young, I had a career and was making some money so I spent much of my free time in the studio that I created at my parents' home. My first paintings of 'Threnody' and 'Azimuth' were created there, but the art really didn't take off until about 2004 when I actually began to sell works all over the U.S.

Azimuth: see the painting here!!!
Threnody: see this painting here!!!
Fade Into Light: Prints and original on sale here!

I now dabble mostly in oils, mostly in landscapes - although I have been expanding my reach as an artist while I am continuing to develop my talent. My works of art, as a body, have never represented any specific area of artistic expression. It's never been a matter of "I create abstracts" or "I paint seascapes". I've always had the fascination of how rich strokes of paint merge to create a picture which then becomes a work of artistic impression for both the viewer and the artist. As a result, I will dabble in any subject, I want to explore any scape, any place and any emotion that can fill the canvas. When my pieces are finished, I want my pieces to look like paintings, not photographs. I want the viewer to see the play of liquid and solid, color and contrast, dark and light. If I've managed all that in one piece - I can call it successful.

You can locate me at: http://laura-swink.artistwebsites.com