Laurel Schmid

Meet Laurel

Laurél Schmid is a painter. A full-time fine artist for over eight years, Laurél is highly influenced in her work by nature. She says the most influential aspect of nature is the constantly changing palette of the water and sky; she is especially well-known for her seascape paintings. “Recently it seems like people often say how calming and relaxing it is when they look at the art in my studio,” Laurél says. She takes it as a compliment when she hears such feedback because she says that is exactly what the water does for her. “It immediately gives me a sense of calm [which] I love expressing in my artwork.” She also has an extensive shell collection (“including the elusive Junonia!”) and tells us that she recently refinished a display table for many of them; her collection informs her work in terms of the inspiring color palettes of the various shells.

Laurél creates her paintings using acrylic paints. She says that she loves the versatility that comes with acrylic: it allows her to vary how she uses paint, from thin and somewhat translucent applications to more textural applications. She notes that she uses acrylics to “build lots of layers in [her] artwork before getting to the final result” and that she finds acrylic paints to work well for doing so. Laurél shares that she doesn’t have a single favorite art tool because it changes depending on the piece. “If I am working on a very large canvas, a sponge is a fantastic way to loosely apply the initial layers.” But other favorites are palette knives in various sizes, scrapers, “and brushes, of course!”

Laurél enjoys spending time underwater as a scuba diver, but also loves beach walks, sunsets, and spending time on her sailboat when she isn’t creating beautiful paintings.