Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Williams.
Hi Laura, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
It’s been a fun, circuitous journey arriving in Austin as an artist from the small rice farming town of Katy, TX where I grew up. I was always encouraged by my parents and teachers to pursue my love of art. After graduating from high school, I went to Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX majoring in studio art. I figured out rather quickly that I was not disciplined enough to support myself as an artist, so I changed majors and schools, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Interior Design from Texas Tech University. I worked as a designer with commercial architectural firms in New Orleans and Houston, as I transferred alongside my Royal Dutch Shell husband who was in a more lucrative career. During that time, I began teaching a senior portfolio class at the University of Houston and discovered that I also loved teaching. As we continued to move over the years to California, back to Louisiana, and then Texas; I was still teaching. My last 10 years of teaching art were at Katy High School, my old alma mater. Then in 2014, my husband was offered an overseas assignment and, with our three sons all in college, we decided to go for it! We shed our western life and moved to the Middle East. My husband lived and worked in Saudi Arabia while I lived in Bahrain, a neighboring country that was more culturally aligned with the Western world. He would come “home” on weekends to Bahrain. It was the most wonderful experience – time to paint, learn photography, and to make friends with people from all over the world. We were repatriated four years later to our dream city – Austin. I now spend my time seeking plein air painting spots around the city or nearby hill country or painting in my studio overlooking UT and the Bullock Museum.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has not been an easy path. Initially, I was underpaid for my work. Part of it was breaking into the industry, but some of it was, I think, because I am a woman, and in the 70s and 80s there were discrepancies in pay scales between men and women. Because my husband was the major breadwinner, we always chose to follow his job, which meant that we moved every four years or so. I would give up my job. The transition in moving was easier for him because he knew people at the office. I would rebuild our home life, settle our kids into their new lives, and seek a new job for myself. With time and practice, that became easier. Entering the education world was a bit difficult as well. I learned early on at the University of Houston that you “don’t smile until Thanksgiving”. In other words, don’t get too friendly with students because they will not respect your authority. Can I say I am an experiential learner? As we moved to different states, however, there were different requirements to teach. In Louisiana, I taught in a federally funded grant program. My classroom management skills improved. Back in Texas in 2000, I had to complete what is known as Alternate Certification, a combination of actual classroom hours combined with some graduate courses in education and professional ethics, and then pass several certification exams in order to teach. I learned that really good teachers are grossly underpaid in Texas. The really good teachers create a safe space for kids to grow and learn, work lots of overtime hours, and manage colleagues who don’t have that same sense of mission. That’s challenging, but the rewards are found in the students that you teach, and yes, eventually become friends with after graduation.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an artist with an interest in several areas. I love painting landscapes and love to paint en plein air. Translated that means in nature and was seen primarily in the late 1800s by the Impressionists, when paint started to be carried in tubes. When you paint en plein air it is a real challenge. You hike in with all of your gear – paint box, paints, brushes, easel, tripod, drawing supplies, sunscreen, bug spray, rain gear, etc. You get the idea! Once you’ve scouted out your scene to paint, you set up the gear and analyze your composition. It is difficult to narrow down the subject matter because you see everything; there’s no stopping point! I like to draw my composition using markers and a value scale. I make notes about the colors I see, the way I feel in the space, the noises I can hear, the smells, and sometimes the people around me. I spend more time drawing than I do painting some days, as I really enjoy that aspect. By that time, however, the light has changed and perhaps what drew me in looks different, so I rely on my notes and my memory. Once the paint starts going on and I figure out the colors, the painting takes shape. It feels like a constant push to the finish line, which is sunset. Well, not even sunset, as some artists like to do nocturnals and paint night scenes en plein air. Most of my plein air paintings I touch up in my studio at home, after a long shower and maybe a stiff drink. I also love to do figure drawing. Prior to the pandemic when I was meeting with a lovely group of artists at AVAA, I challenged myself to draw the models using only markers. If I made a mistake, I had to “absorb” it somehow into the composition. This became an excellent practice in observing proportion, scale, and what artists call sighting – using whatever utensil you are drawing with to create a scale of sorts so that you can get proportions correct.
Another love I still have is interior design and architecture. My husband and I renovated our 1965 midcentury condominium a couple of years ago. It was such a fun project to spearhead. I drew the plans for the contractor. Mind you, not CAD on the computer but on my drafting table with parallel bar, and architects scale. I’ve also designed and drawn a house we have planned for the hill country some day.
Perhaps what I’m most proud of accomplishing though is that I have helped others find happiness through art.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
With that question, I immediately hear my mother’s voice in my head saying, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” However, I would have to say, “do not give up.” There have been many times that I couldn’t figure out a solution or maybe I couldn’t see the path forward, or maybe someone had discouraged me and all seemed pointless, or maybe all 35 of my students’ Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo art competition permission forms blew into the lake the night before submission. If you take a step back, go for a walk, sleep on it, or maybe just frantically race to the deadline doing the best you can, it will somehow work out. And then you can say I did my best.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.laurawilliamsgallery.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurawilliamsgallery/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurawilliamsgallery
- Youtube: youtube.com/@laurawilliams1543
