Lara Cooper

Lara has been painting for around 17 years, although her love of art and art-making was there since childhood. She still remembers the first time she stood at an easel in kindergarten, the smell of the paint and paper and the joy of making marks. While still a sucker for the smell and feel of art supplies, it’s the beauty of light playing with the colour of everyday, mundane moments that stirs her to capture a subject in paint, these days. Having tuned her eye into capture fleeting beauty, it’s not unusual for her to comment: “There’s a painting in there…”, referring to some ordinary moment others would most probably miss. And then it is captured forever, in paint, to continue to tell its story of common human experience.

Preferring to work in either watercolour or oil paint, her work is rich with well-honed technique, sensitive use of colour and depth of story.  Moving between these two mediums allows her to create a variety of interpretations, and flexibility in the outcome, as some subjects lend themselves to brevity and translucency of watercolour, whereas others are asking for the buttery decadence of oils.

Lara’s paintings have received acknowledgements and awards in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria, and are held in private collections across Australia and around the world.

Lara’s studio is located in beautiful Maleny, where she resides with her family.