Laurel Daniel is a painter from Austin, Texas, whose fondness for the practice of plein air painting gives her larger studio works a similar freshness and immediacy.
She studied at Wheaton College with additional coursework at San Francisco Academy of Art and Austin Museum Art School. In addition to painting full time she also teaches at the Austin Museum of Art.
Daniel has a web site on which you can see her plein air work, as well as studio pieces, divided into landscapes and waterscapes. Unfortunately, the images are small.
You will find larger images on her blog, on which she posts recent works and offers them for sale. She also has a second painting blog devoted specifically to small works; it’s an interesting and I think nice idea to sort them out that way.
Her former career in graphic design serves her well, in that it undoubtedly informs her strong compositions and clear, forceful use of color. Another aspect of her work, both in the studio and out, is a well developed sense of when to stop; avoiding the temptation to overwork a piece whose strength often comes from the crisp clarity of an immediate statement.
Don’t let my nit-picking about the web site dissuade you from visiting it as well as the blogs, there are delightful works to be found in all three locations.
