ABOUT LAURA WOOTEN
Laura Wooten is a painter of nature, place, and personal history. Through a close observation of the natural world, with layers of memory and invention, Laura paints the landscapes of her daily life: views from her hilltop neighborhood, the trees that mark the passing of time in her own backyard, and the immersive plants and flowers that spill from her garden beds and window ledge. Her new body of work, Windowsill Reveries, combines landscape views with still life compositions of plants, flowers, and cherished family objects. The window operates as a threshold between interior and exterior, domestic life and the natural world, intimacy and expansiveness.
She earned her undergraduate degree in Art and Architecture at the University of Virginia and continued at UVA as an Aunspaugh Post-Baccalaureate Fellow in Studio Art. Laura studied painting for two summers at Chautauqua Institution before earning her MFA from American University in Washington, D.C. She attended a summer program in Perugia, Italy, at the Accademia di Belle Arti Pietro Vannucci, where the panoramic Mediterranean landscape took hold of her imagination. Her paintings have been exhibited across the East Coast, including juried exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, and The Painting Center in NYC. Laura has frequently shown her work in central Virginia, including exhibitions at Chroma Projects, Second Street Gallery, Phaeton Gallery, and Steven Francis Fine Art. An avid teacher, Laura has served as a guest lecturer in fine art and design at UVA and leads perceptual painting workshops.
Laura is an artist, a mom, and a co-owner of Orzo Kitchen & Wine Bar in Charlottesville, Virginia with her husband and two dear friends. Their travels throughout the Mediterranean have cultivated an on-going passion for the food, wine, landscapes, and culture of this region. Whether she is cooking for her family with local produce at home, or sharing a special meal while traveling abroad, Laura cherishes the connections between landscape, culture, and family that shape our food traditions, our sense of place, and our feelings of belonging.
Laura’s collection of Mediterranean landscape paintings is currently on display at Orzo Kitchen & Wine Bar in Charlottesville, VA.
