About the Artist

Laura Peden is an emerging landscape painter from Bayswater, WA whose art practice is an exploration of her dialogue with the landscape and her place within it. Inspired by nature’s diversity, tenacity and beauty, Laura’s artworks tell stories about the impact of urbanisation, conservation and the resilience of nature.

Laura invites the viewer to take a closer look at the natural world, from remnant pockets of urban bushland and wetlands in Perth, to the rock formations of the Kimberley, to the cultivated gardens and fragile forest regrowth of Japan and to contemplate the way we regard ourselves in the landscape, how we affect the landscape and how it affects us.

Laura sketches and paints en plein air and takes photographs, and then develops those studies into larger works in her studio. She paints in gouache, acrylic and oils, and frequently incorporates mixed media into her works. Laura hopes that sharing her artwork will encourage people to seek out and recognise the intrinsic value of nature, and consider it and themselves in a different light.

Laura grew up in an artistic and musical family. Her grandparents on both sides were professional and amateur artists. When she was born, her father painted a large mural (apparently inspired by Picasso) on her nursery wall and art, artists and gallery visits were a large part of her childhood. An experience painting en plein air in the high country of Victoria when Laura was 15 years old ignited a lifelong desire to paint. Her tertiary training as a classical musician and her multidisciplinary collaborative studies as a postgraduate student at the Victorian College of the Arts, as well as a deep interest in history and philosophy, have provided a rich impetus for her recent work as a visual artist. 

Laura has been exhibiting her artwork since 2019. She has been a prize winner at the Cossack Art Awards (2023) and the City of Bayswater Art Awards (2019, 2023).

Please click here for a current, downloadable CV.

Laura - 6 months old