Lara Scoppettone

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Lara’s life long love for art started from a young age as she grew up “playing and painting” in her dad’s art studio. Of her early experience, the artist shares this, “He’d set up a small easel next to his and I’d copy whatever he was working on. I always knew I was an artist and received tremendous support and encouragement from my parents. They had me sign and date everything I did and kept it all!”

Lara continued her love and study of art at Cabrillo College where she learned from many talented teachers in fine art and art history. She went on to graduate from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a major in fine art and a minor in art history. Lara also enjoyed teaching a children’s art class for five years at ‘Gray Gables,’ a children’s school of cultural arts.

She has studied privately under many great modern masters, taking lessons from master still life artist (the modern day Rembrandt), David Leffel: master portrait artist John Howard Sanden, a student of a student of John Singer Sargent: master portrait artist Richard Whitney, a student of a student of Norman Rockwell; Dario Campanile, a student of Salvador Dali; and landscape artist Ezra Katz.

Lara lives and has her studio in the Santa Cruz Mountains where she finds tremendous inspiration from the beauty of nature all around her: “Every day I am in constant wonder and awe of the perfection and beauty of nature. I feel and connect daily with that same energy in myself and feel it is my purpose in life to share it with others through my work, so that at some level they may connect with that in themselves and their own lives… And that it may enrich their life in the same way it’s enriched mine. I get in a very positive space with myself when I paint. I am very deliberate to have each brush stroke come from a place of pure joy. I turn my favorite music on and am truly inspired! And somehow, the painting seems to paint itself and I am just an observer. It’s that pure joy, positive energy and true inspiration that I want to come across in my work. I want people to see what I see and that is the beautiful world all around us, and complete appreciation for being alive in this world today! I am very grateful to be an artist and will continue to paint until the day I die!”