Laura Hudson

Layers of Intuition

Laura Hudson was raised on Whidbey Island, Washington, and earned her BFA in Art from Western Washington University in Bellingham. She went on to receive her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Mt. Royal School of Art in Baltimore. After graduate school, she joined an artist collective, where she lived communally and collaborated with a dynamic community of artists and musicians to create work and produce shows.

Ultimately, her deep connection to the Pacific Northwest drew her back home. Laura now lives on Whidbey Island with her husband Victor Ramos and her three sons. She works from a barn studio on their property, continuing her creative practice in the landscape that first inspired it. Her mother, Georgia Gerber—a bronze sculptor—lives just down the road.

After 20 years of a dedicated painting practice, I’ve recently shifted away from recreating reference photos, allowing my imagination to guide me instead. This change has opened the door to true creative freedom.

The influence of artists like Katherine Bradford, Milton Avery, and Bob Thompson,  along with countless personal experiments, has helped me uncover a way of painting that I had been intuitively seeking for years. It feels like stepping into a world I’ve always known was there, but couldn’t quite reach.

Each painting is rooted in memory- sometimes from childhood, sometimes more recent, and all are deeply tied to my life on Whidbey Island. A thread of spirituality, something I’ve been quietly exploring in my personal life, has begun to emerge in my work, and I’m grateful to see it take shape on the canvas.

What remains constant in my practice is a deep desire for connection- to place, to memory, to others, and a profound sense of gratitude for it.