Ambassador of the Week: Laura Wilkins

A self-taught wildlife painter, Laura Wilkins mostly uses watercolor to depict feathered creatures. Her work is inspired by our connection to ocean and land, and she approaches artmaking as a meditative process, using methods influenced by East Asian calligraphy to paint realistic birds. She began practicing mindfulness and meditation at a young age after being inspired by her mother’s books, and these practices continue to influence her painting process to this day. 

“Wild Flamingos — Greater Flamingo Pair” (watercolor painting)

Wilkins renders her images with Chinese and Japanese paintbrushes, dipping them in watercolor as opposed to ink to obtain smooth, accurate linework. The birds appear loose but realistic in their expression. To give her images added dimension, she frequently uses salt on her watercolor paper. 

Wilkins is currently working out of her home studio in Denver, Colorado.

Join our community of ambassadors from all over the world and help spread the word about American Watercolor. Invite your friends to subscribe and if five sign up, you can enter your work for the opportunity to be featured to thousands of subscribers in an upcoming newsletter.


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Kelly Kane
PleinAir Magazine and American Watercolor Weekly Editor-in-Chief With more than 20 years experience in art publishing, Kelly Kane has served previously as Editor-in-Chief of Watercolor Artist magazine and Content Director for The Artist’s Magazine, Drawing, Acrylic Artist, and Pastel Journal. She has interviewed many of the preeminent artists of our time and written numerous articles about painting, drawing, art education and art history. She is now the Editor-in-Chief of PleinAir Magazine and the American Watercolor Weekly newsletter. Click here to send her an email.

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