The watercolour paintings of this Carleton Place artist celebrate the intricate perfection of nature’s gorgeous floral gifts, up close and in stunning detail. Through years of practice and experimentation, coupled with classes and many hours of online tutorials, Laurel Onfrichuk is able to capture and magnify the radiant beauty of each bloom. Her luminous floral paintings lure the viewer to get up close and examine the exquisite details of a single peony, the gorgeous petals of a single clematis bloom.
Along the way, she has mastered the capture of many other subjects, including commissioned portraits of people and beloved pets. This past December, a portrait she painted of her father was accepted into the 100th Anniversary Exhibition of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC) in Georgetown, ON — the only portrait among the forty paintings accepted. You can view her loving tribute at laureldawnart.com/events. Her ability to capture heartwarming portraits of pets is amply displayed on her website and social media accounts, listed on the back of her Artist Trading Card at the top of the righthand corner of this page.
Detours
Laurel has had an interesting journey to becoming a watercolour artist, returning to art seven years ago after a forty-plus-year hiatus. Growing up in Fonthill (near Welland) in the Niagara Peninsula, she took oil painting lessons from the age of eleven to fifteen. She presented a landscape painting to her grandparents as a gift, and it resurfaced many years later when her mother inherited it. Meanwhile, life intervened, and at age twenty Laurel married a young student, Nathan Onfrichuk, and joined him at Seneca College in Toronto to also become a licensed optician. The couple lived in Sault Ste. Marie raising their son until a parental illness brought them to Kingston where their daughter was born. They moved back to the Niagara Peninsula where Laurel and Nathan continued their careers as opticians. Nathan eventually became the optical buyer for Costco in Canada, and their daughter became an optician also. Eventually both their kids moved near Carleton Place, and in 2021, the couple downsized and relocated to be near them. Throughout her healthcare career Laurel enjoyed photography, and she is skilled at capturing images of her artistic subjects.
Back on Track
In 2019, just before Covid struck, Laurel was thinking of retiring. When her mother happened to resurface the landscape oil painting Laurel had painted as a teen, Laurel was struck by an overwhelming urge to add art to her retirement repertoire. She and her husband love to travel, play golf, and enjoy a glass of wine. One of her coworkers was dabbling in watercolours, and Laurel realized that this medium was the perfect travel companion. All you need is your palette, a tablet of good paper, some brushes and a few paints — water was available everywhere they wanted to play golf. In typical problem-solving fashion, as she encountered and conquered the demanding foibles of her unforgiving new medium (mistakes are fatal to luminosity), she was able to reduce her palette to accommodate only three to five paints. With enough practice and experimentation, all other hues can be created by the assiduous blending of yellow, red and blue.
Trips into Ottawa to attend classes at the Ottawa School of Art proved so time-consuming that she explored online options and discovered a platform called Skillshare. “With a year’s subscription, you can learn anything!”, she enthused. She discovered online resources from Australian instructor Louise De Masi, Ottawan Danielle Beaulieu, British Columbian Marney Ward, and Shelley Prior in Oakville. When she hit a plateau, she was rescued by the ironically named art teacher Brittney Tough from Alberta. Laurel gratefully acknowledges how much she has benefitted from Tough’s thoughtful critiques, open studio sessions, and feedback from other artists.
Laurel’s golf handicap is an impressive fourteen. Her uncle owned a golf course, her father was a golfer, and she herself loves to play. In 2020 she and Nathan completed an 11,000-mile road trip designed to play selected courses from Florida to Arizona. She brings the same competitive spirit to her watercolour art. She enjoys joining local and national artist associations and competing for opportunities to showcase her paintings in local, national and international juried exhibitions, thoroughly enjoying each success.
In addition to the acclaim for her portrait of her father, one of her paintings sold on opening night this past September at the 100th Annual Open Water Exhibition at the Teichert Gallery in Halifax. She and Nathan were able to attend, since they were nearby playing golf in PEI. This same beautifully coloured and intricate portrayal of buttons and spools of thread was selected last July from among 1,730 entries from 56 countries in the 6th Annual Women in Watercolor International Juried Competition. Laurel was one of six Canadian artists to receive an Honorable Mention.
Aware that galleries and even some fans prefer a cohesive body of work, Laurel has recently laid aside her glowing renditions of quilts and fabrics, antique cups, and other favourite subjects to focus her current efforts on floral subjects. To distinguish her paintings from others in this popular category (landscapes, still lifes, architecture and portraits are other common watercolour subjects), she moves in close and paints every detail of every petal in luscious, vibrant, glowing colour.
Upcoming Art Shows & Sales
Newsprint is somewhat handicapped in that it cannot do justice to the richness and vibrancy of the colours Laurel Onfrichuk achieves with her expert use of three primary watercolour paints. In addition to the samples of her beautiful results adorning our cover for this most welcome spring issue, you can see her works in their full resplendence from April 24–26 at the upcoming Manotick Art Association Inspirations Art Show & Sale. On May 2 and 3 her works will be on display at the Arts Carleton Place Spring Fine Art Exhibition & Sale at the Carleton Place Arena at 75 Neelin Street. Full coordinates for both shows and for other opportunities to enjoy the art of this talented Carleton Place artist are on the back of her Artist Trading Card at the top of this page.
