Laurel Daunis-Allen {Paintings}

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I was born and raised in Lawrenceville, NJ. Around the age of five, I stumbled upon my aunts painting studio during a family gathering at my grandparents house. Her oil palette was sitting in the window with sunlight going across it.  I stuck a finger into this yellow stuff & began rubbing it between my fingers. I was drawn to the texture & color, I had to know what this "stuff" was! Turns out what I had put my fingers in was Cadmium Yellow oil paint. From that point on I was hooked & so began my path as an artist.

 

In my younger years, I spent quite a lot of time painting & exhibiting my art. I had paintings exhibited at the New Jersey State Museum; Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie; Made by Hand Gallery, Trenton, NJ; The Tabor Gallery, Boston; and PDG Art Galleries, NYC. As time went on, I devoted more time to my career as an illustrator and infographics specialist.  I have had illustrations & informational graphics appear in Business Week Magazine; The Los Angeles Times; Forbes; and The Financial Mail on Sunday Newspaper in London. 

 

Now I am getting back to my roots and devoting most of my time to my first love, painting.

 

My father grew up in Maine & I have been going up to Maine & painting it's beauty ever since I was a child. I have always been mesmerized and drawn to the big, bold rocks found up in Maine, especially on the coast. In my most recent works, instead of painting rocks as part of a landscape, they have become the landscape. These paintings can sometimes take on an abstract quality depending on how much or little detail is included and how close up into the rocks surface I go.  I paint them in black & white, so that the viewer may experience the raw emotion & energy of the stone without being distracted by color.