Lara Ralston
Hi! I'm Lara, a Southern California native and artist. I've been creating art ever since I first picked up a crayon.…to write meticulous O’s and H’s on the fireplace bricks (sorry Mom, I had a vision). My degree in English and writing, plus my background in music and theater, make storytelling an integral part of how I express myself.
Through my art I strive to teach myself to paint the beautiful stories that she sees in the natural world around me. Everything I paint has a story, as I attempt to convey a captured, crystalized moment snatched out of a dynamic timeline—a bird caught preening his feathers, or an octopus caught mid-escape. We're just spectators of that moment as they go about their own lives.
Commissioned pieces are a unique opportunity to tell the intimate stories of the people who will own them. I began my art career by painting on three-dimensional surfaces (and still do frequently), like boxes and stools and chairs, and learned to find ways to play with the shape of the piece and let it help tell the story. This means I'm rarely content with two dimensions, so often it still stretches into the third dimension, through the use of layered resin to emulate water currents, or clay to build up the fin on a koi’s back. My most recent passion is to take old, worn out musical instruments, and reimagine them with clay and paint into entirely new creations. Who knew there was a peacock lurking in the secret heart of a sparkly blue violin??
I've sold art and won awards at galleries and festivals throughout Orange County, such as Laguna Art A Fair, the Orange County Fair, The Balboa Historical Art Museum, and Huntington Beach Art Center, as well as a series of special commissions for Whittier College's donor program.