ART Painting With Emphasis Laura Paray Captures The Variety of Lights

By emphasizing the light effect of a subject, Laura Paray looks to convey the prismatic flow of light to her subjects. Paray’s landscape inspiration comes from such varied places as Monhegan Island, Maine; the Catskill Mountains, N.Y.; Southern France; and the Italian Alps. Her still-lifes are personally put together with an emphasis on color, composition and light effect.

Growing up in Ho-Ho-Kus, Paray was fortunate to be close to the Ridgewood Art Institute where she took her first oil painting class at age 10. In her early 20s, she was mentored by the late Arthur F. Maynard, one of the first instructors of the Institute. She later continued her studies with John Phillip Osborne. After moving back to Bergen County to raise her family, she began teaching at The Ridgewood Art Institute where she first fell in love with oil painting as a child.

The process of creating a painting, specifically a landscape, starts with a plein air sketch, a French term for painting on location out of doors. Bringing that initial inspiration into the studio is a springboard for recreating the scene and working out the composition.

“This process helps to keep the same feel of the day that first evoked a certain emotion in me,” said Paray.

“All the while, I’m hopeful my viewer experiences the same emotive reaction when in front of my painting. Oil painting is my preferred medium. There is freedom with the medium – layering, brushwork and the flexibility to change something in the painting, if I wish to.”

Paray has won awards for her work, and she has many local collectors. She most recently exhibited her work at The John Fell House in Allendale.