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St Paul's
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St Paul's School, Concord, NH - article by Jana Brown
When Laura Clark '89 crossed paths with a Spanish archaeologist in Florence last year, her trained artist's eye told her immediately that she should try to capture the woman's image on one of her oil canvases. The result was more striking than Clark could have imagined and the portrait, named "Herminia" after its subject, caught the attention of the art world as well. After completing the painting from 20 sittings of three hours each, taking advantage of the Italian sunlight, Clark decided to enter her masterpiece in an international portrait contest sponsored by the Portrait Society of America.
Of the over 800 entries in the contest, Clark's portrait was one of 12 selected for on-site final judging at Boston's Park Plaza Hotel in early May. Much to her equal surprise and delight, Clark was rewarded with both the Draper Grand Prize and the People's Choice Award for "Herminia." Clark's work represents the first painting not only of a woman but also by a woman to win the Grand Prize.
Clark discovered her passion for art before her 12th birthday and continued to pursue her interest and talent through St. Paul's School (where she was also a decorated three-sport athlete), at the University of New Hampshire (as a studio art major), as a graphic designer just out of college, and as a student of Paul Ingbretson (in Manchester, NH) for three years. She also spent a year in Florence at the Charles Cecil Studios focusing her studies on portraiture and teaching landscape classes.
Trained in the classical style, Clark's roots are based in the Boston School tradition with a strong European influence. Among the places she has exhibited her portraits, still life work, and landscapes are the Harvard Club (2004), the National Academic Artists Association (2002), and the St. Paul's School Alumni Show (1997).
One of the keys to Clark's stunning portraits is her belief in painting her subjects from life, as opposed to from photographs. "You get a very different painting than you do when you are copying something from a photograph," she explained. "It is much more about responding to the life in front of you. It may take more time, but in the end result you can see the difference."
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