The newest series of paintings by Laura Watt continues her trajectory the past 5 years of deftly combining pattern with rectilinear and curvilinear geometric forms, extreme vectors along with large swaths of bold color and gestural shapes. The result has been abstractions that span purely non-objective to highly referential (often aided by leading titles) compositions and often with optical and illusory overtones and psychedelia. 

Watt’s aesthetic shifts along this path have included her starting compositions with large passages of stained paint, mostly dark, moody colors on canvas which provides the ground and creates distinct areas and unique points of entry to place the patterns, vectors, and resulting forms. Initially, Watt layered patterns to create overlays and a unique level of complexity in each composition. Now, she makes distinct, large scale geometric patterns and forms both the subject and focal point, for example, Memory of Florence and Duomo, below.