Bio
Laura Menzies is a contemporary British painter based in Cornwall, England.
Menzies trained at Birmingham University, graduating with a BA in Performing & Visual Arts before gaining an MA in Fine Art from Falmouth University. She has exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally showing at Tate Modern & Tate St Ives. She is currently represented by Morgans Gallery, Milieu Studios and several art consultancies.
She is also a trained art teacher and educator and has taught at Falmouth University, St Ives School of Painting and The Eden Project among others.
Artist’s Statement
'My lyrical, abstract paintings are like visual poems, spoken through constructs of memories, emotions and indirect references to place. These influences are not overt but are located on the edge of consciousness, gradually seeping in as the work evolves. I paint intuitively in a visceral and fluid manner, each brush stroke directly informing the next. This process is highly sensitive. It develops organically over time by building up and scraping back layers of oil paint, cold wax and mixed media to create a palimpsest of lines, colours and textures that reveal traces of the work’s history.
In places the play between these formal elements registers a tension between the familiar and the unknown, offering subtle suggestions and emphasising instability over certainty. My paintings are sensory and evocative, the end result of looking, thinking and feeling. They aim to reveal things that aren’t immediately visible and often can’t be put into words. They take time to disclose themselves fully and reward those that spend time with them. They ask the viewer to slow down and contemplate and to momentarily loose themselves in their visual and physical presence, providing breathing space from the world'.