Laura Jones is a self-taught contemporary visual artist painting in the Realism, Impressionist and Abstract styles who paints what she sees, usually from photographs; occasionally from direct life, imagination or a composite of these. She considers it a blessing From God to have been gifted with an innate artistic talent that allows her to capture the beauty she sees around her for the enjoyment of others. She strives to paint in such a way as to illicit a visceral response in the viewer.
Laura received a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education degree from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and taught history, psychology and humanities at Mercy High School there. She was born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1953, and has lived and traveled extensively throughout the United States - residing in Alabama, California, Maine, Colorado, Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington. She moved to Northern Virginia in 1977 and currently resides in Manassas, Virginia.
The move to Virginia led to a 32 - year career as a Department of Defense contractor and self-taught Aerospace Systems Engineer. Her artistic goals were put on hold for more than three decades while she supported our nation's decision makers through space-based intelligence collection.
In 2014, at age 61, Laura began painting and working as a full- time artist - a long-held dream at last realized. With no small amount of trepidation - but a great deal of joy - she exhibited her work in public for the first time in 2016. A member of the Art a la Carte cooperative gallery in historic Occoquan, Virginia from 2018 – 2022; she moved to ARTOPIA Gallery at Fair Oaks in March of 2022 where she sold her work in addition to giving demonstrations and teaching painting classes. Laura currently works and teaches from her home studio.
