Organic Abstractions
Fine Art

Lara A. M. Hernandez - About the Artist
 
Lara has been painting since she can remember. Born into a family of artists, she learned about drawing and painting from her mother and grandmother and later pursued a degree in Art at the University of Texas at Austin. Early in her career she worked with oil and soft pastels, India ink, graphite, pencil, acrylic, and watercolor often rendering realistic images of landscapes, portraits, still life, and abstract subjects. Nature has often been the source of inspiration for her artwork. While in high school she presented her work to Laredo Center for the Arts and was given an art show.  She was their youngest artist to exhibit.
 
While an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, Lara developed a unique style of painting. Influenced by the art movements of impressionism and abstract expressionism, she uses color, form, and texture to create a unique style that evokes abstract expressionism with an organic subject matter. Her pieces are textural.  Layers of oil paint, graphite, oil pastel and other elements combine to create a sense of captured time and evoke sensual natural forms. She collects natural objects, such as seed pods, and then translates these objects into her paintings. Allured by the sense of time and history in the found objects, her process mimics the phases of growth in nature. Her process is fluid and driven by her aesthetic intuition. Her original painting style was born while she studied at UT.  She began with a series of foundation pieces on paper.  Over time, she has translated her work in ceramics and most recently encaustic and gouache.  
 
In addition to being an artist, Lara holds a Master of Science degree in Clinical Psychology and is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Psychological Associate (LPA).  She has a private psychotherapy practice, Attention Lab, PLLC where she specializes in treating ADHD.  More information about services she provides can be found at www.attentionlab.com.