Laura Peden (PACT Art Collective)

Over 12 months, the PACT Art Collective, four Western Australian artists Alex, Laura, Kirsten and Emma met weekly in Hyde Park to paint "en plein air", to celebrate the park, highlight current challenges it faces, and inspire a conversation.

PACT Collective: (left-right) Alex Kyriakacis, Laura Peden, Emma Nolan, Kirsten Hocking (photo credit: Josie Nolan @art_amidae)

Laura Peden

Tell us a bit about yourself.

While I have dreamt of being an artist since I was a teenager, my first career was in classical music, although I kept drawing and creating when I could. Focusing on visual art feels like a sort of home-coming.

What does your work aim to say?

My art practice investigates the dialogue between humans and the natural landscape: how we perceive the landscape, how it affects us, how we affect it, and how I can best communicate these experiences to others.

Laura Peden (photo credit: Josie Nolan (@art_amidae) and artwork.

Who or what are your biggest influences?

My biggest influences have been art galleries, television, and radio. When I was a child, the ABC TV Arts Show on Sundays was compulsory viewing. Radio shows and podcasts that discuss and share artist lives and thoughts have always resonated with me. And, being old enough to recall a time when photos in art books were small black and white reproductions, seeing artworks in galleries has always been essential. YouTube is now an invaluable resource.

How has your career developed or evolved?

I think it is too early in my career to be able to answer this question. I want to keep learning and experimenting.

Describe your studio or workspace.

For the first few years, I painted in a corner of my bedroom. I put a groundsheet over the floorboards but, somehow, I splattered paint everywhere, including on the floorboards. As I accumulated more materials, it became very cramped. I now paint in the garden shed. The ceiling is so low that I had to chop the top off my easel. There is still stuff everywhere. I need to get more organised…

Describe your dream project

To live and work as an artist - and I am already doing this. However, I have lots of ideas for projects, from investigating tree canopy in local suburbs, to continuing to paint Baigup wetlands, to art residencies where I can be immersed in different landscapes.

What is the best piece of advice you've received?

I think my favourite advice is to define what success means to you.

And to Just Do It! (thank you Nike and Karen Frankel!)

How do you overcome creative blocks?

When I don’t feel like painting, I draw. When I don’t feel like being creative, I do drawing and colour mixing exercises. When I don’t feel like doing these, I will prepare substrates. If I don’t want to do that, I will tidy up. (My studio is super messy!) But it is also very important to have solid breaks - time away to give yourself space to evaluate and reevaluate goals and projects, and to let ideas bubble up to the surface.

How do you stay motivated in your art practice?

Nobody needs you to be an artist. Fortunately, I have an innate urge to paint and it makes me happy, even when it is hard and nothing works! Talking to other artists is also very motivating.

How do you balance your personal life and your art practice?

What personal life? An art practice is extremely time-consuming. In addition to making artworks (which in itself is extremely time-consuming), you also need to run a small business, write artist statements, update your website and social media, enter competitions and prepare for exhibitions (and did I mention clean your studio?), so there is not much time left over. 

Connect with Laura:

Website: www.laurapedenart.com

Email: laurapedenart@gmail.com

Instagram: @laurapedenart

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