Laural Retz was born in 1971 and raised in Warrandyte, Victoria. Warrandyte during Laural’s childhood, was a small bush town nestled along the banks of the Yarra River forming a part of the Heidelberg School trail. Since the late 1800’s the lifeblood of Warrandyte has been in the arts and crafts with a large population of potters and painters residing there. These early influences greatly moulded Laural’s character by instilling an appreciation for art which, in turn, drove her to excel in art throughout her primary and secondary school days. One of Laural’s passions as a child was painting and sculpting her favourite things; insects and animals.

As a young adult, Laural pursued a career in the corporate world of travel and tourism, however always instinctively felt that her calling in life was impatiently waiting to be recognized. Laural came close to finding this in 1994 when she experimented with landscape painting by joining an outdoor oil painting class conducted by multi-award winner Ron Reynolds of the Victorian Art Society. However, she felt that she wasn’t (and still isn’t) mature enough to pursue landscape painting and consequently lost heart in her art.

Laural left Warrandyte for Noosa Heads in 1996 and began to occasionally paint in her spare time. It wasn’t until 1998 that Laural experienced a renewed passion for art when she was coerced into attending an informal life drawing session by then fellow work colleague and artist, Trudy Hollingsworth. Laural surprised herself and her peers on this night when she discovered a hidden talent for representation of the human form.

Shortly afterwards, Laural resigned from her job and undertook two years of studies for the Visual Arts Diploma in Painting and Drawing run by the Cooloola Sunshine Institute of Tafe at Noosaville. During her training, Laural’s art developed into a unique style of bold, colourful and refreshing figurative works, which strongly reflect the human beauty and vibrant colours of the Noosa environment.

Laural’s work rapidly found a very receptive market place and now successfully sells from galleries in Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland. She also has an open air exhibition every Saturday morning at the world famous Eumundi Markets in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. The highlight for 2002 will be when Laural exhibits at the Brisbane ‘Every Woman Expo’ in September as one of Queensland’s top female artists.

Laural Retz is an ambitious and devoted artist who feels passionately about her work. She strongly believes that dreams do come true if you allow yourself to follow your heart, and she believes she will still be painting at the ripe old age of 90 – blind, arthritic or come what may!

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