Laura Arango
Norway
Laura Arango Baier is a Colombian born artist based out of Miami, Florida. Her artistic influences include 17th century painters like Diego Velazquez and Anton Van Dyck along with the imaginative elements of 19th century painters like William Adolphe Bouguereau and Luis Ricardo Faléro. In terms of inspiration, Laura has always had a fascination with the esoteric and incorporates aspects of alchemy and witchcraft into her work. Her medium of choice is oil paint due to its versatility and the ease with which it can be used to transmute her visions into a concrete reality.
Laura attended Design and Architecture Senior High, where she studied architecture as well as art history and contemporary painting. Being an autodidact, she began teaching herself oil painting at the age of 15 when she first learned about the medium. Soon after, she became aware of classical realist ateliers and decided it would be best to attend one. Laura applied and was accepted into Angel Academy of Art, Florence in 2016 where she studied under ARC Living Master, Michael John Angel. She graduated in late 2018 and has since continued the pursuit of perfecting her oil painting techniques.
In 2012, Laura was awarded an Honorable Mention by Scholastics Art & Writing for her painting “The Hermit.” And in 2015, she donated her mixed media piece, “Casper”, to the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center Fundraising Auction. Recently, Laura entered her portrait of Annechien Steenhuizen in the viewer's competition for a Dutch program called Project Rembrandt. She was chosen as one of the winners and appears on the season finale as a judge to help pick the winner of Project Rembrandt.
Laura’s goal as an artist is to delve deeper into the genre of imaginative realism, bringing closer together the realm of dreams with that of reality. She is currently working on a series based upon several books dealing with witchcraft, including The Malleus Maleficarum.
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 14th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.
