Laraine is a Fine Arts – Painting graduate of Central St. Martins, London, and has many years teaching experience, as a tutor for the Open College of the Arts (OCA), in Higher Education, Adult Education and privately (courses, workshops and painting holidays). She is highly regarded as a perceptive, patient and encouraging tutor working with beginners and advanced students alike, her main aim being to teach people to ‘see’ the relationships of line, tone, shape, colour etc which are fundamental to drawing and painting. Laraine provides tuition in a wide range of media and her structured approach to developing creative self expression equips students with essential practical skills and techniques supported by relevant theory. Experimentation with their chosen media is an important part of the process through which learners are encouraged to develop their own style and consolidate their new skills, facilitated by lots of individual tutor attention.
For her own work artworks Laraine uses oils, pastels, watercolours, and a variety of drawing materials. Her main inspiration is the interplay of light on surfaces, particularly the human form (portraiture and figure work) and landscape. Other favoured subjects include architecture and equestrian work. Her work ranges from a fast, loose and free gestural approach to a more measured and evocative tonal style. She has exhibited widely and has work in a number of private collections.