Laura Carroll Wetz

Ohio is home.  It is where I met my husband, raised my children and where I have traveled around the state and collected so many memories.  The Ohio landscape evokes many emotions and nostalgia by conjuring up happy childhood memories and significant moments in life.  I create and connect with each landscape as it evokes its own charm, beauty and sense of nostalgia.

My work focuses on capturing the comfort, love and connections to the landscape of Ohio as well as to the places I have traveled to and have fallen in love with.  I  paint landscapes because they  transport you to those places by conjuring up memories and evoking subconscious emotions.  My favorite subjects are Ohio’s charming towns, historical homes, farms, parks, lakes, rivers and gardens.

My process begins with a combination of drawings, plein air studies and photographic references.  Once I have the drawing, value and overall design of a work figured out, I begin to lay in color in a “general to specific” manner until I am working on the final details with my smallest brushes.

I’ve dedicated myself to be a lifelong learner and continually push myself to develop my skills to the highest level.  Nature has been one of my greatest teachers with all of its nuanced color shifts created by light that I try to record and remember as I paint en plein air.