I am going to jump right in and say, loudly, that Laura moves me. From the very first time I saw one of her paintings, there was a shift in me that went beyond the usual, ‘Oh, I like that painting’ feeling. I wanted to touch the shimmering figures and run my hands over their curved backs; I wanted to mop brows and make tea; I wanted to sit with them till morning.  I knew what I was getting onto when I visited The Carl Freedman Gallery at the weekend. Laura’s latest show, A Healing Dream, was all I had expected and maybe a lot more. I was a bit dazed, seeing so much of her work in one place and seeing some of her larger pieces for the first time too.

The figures live in a different light. The outside world is lit by everyday streetlights and car headlamps; inside the light mutates into a Chiaroscuro realm where floors disappear and ceilings barely exist. Who can say what we really see here? 

I feel a calm exude from the canvases. These figures hold out their hands and I want to gently touch their fingers as I pass.