Gestural marks and colour drive Laurel’s painting, it is both intuitive and disciplined. Freedom from the convention of ‘subject’ requires more concentration on the elements that create abstract imagery.

Her work is often large, complex and layered, it changes as you look at it and in different lights. Laurel’s work explores elements of abstraction, starting from making marks and choosing colour without reference in the real world.

Sometimes it is the emotion and the energy that are prominent. Sometimes the real world creeps in and asserts itself. The work can reflect a mood, or be reminiscent of time and place.

Laurel is a Friend of the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. She has been instrumental in developing a collaboration with The Goods Shed and leading the RWA Friends exhibition, which was scheduled for May 2020 before everything was shutdown for the “duration”.