Finding My Medium
When you walk into Vessel Gallery, you’re likely to ask me two things: “What kind of art do you do?” and “Where on earth is that accent from?”
I usually answer that I am a watercolourist. Even though I dabble in almost everything, watercolour feels the most like me: fluid, transparent, unforgiving yet honest, occasionally unpredictable and stubborn, but generally well-behaved. However, as much as it defines me now, our relationship didn’t exactly start with a ‘coup de foudre’.
My name is Laurie Spera Mango. I grew up in Avignon, France, where I studied Applied Arts and Packaging Design. Back then, I was all about the bold world of acrylics, dry pastels, and alcohol markers. The professional watercolour set I treated myself to at fifteen sat quietly at the bottom of my toolbox, ignored and unloved. Its only job for years was to provide a light wash of colour to the caricatures I drew of my classmates (and teachers) whenever I got bored in English class.
At twenty-two, I traded my desk for a backpack to travel the world. Space was a luxury. My heavy paints stayed behind, and I packed a few trusted ink pens and, half-heartedly, that old tin of watercolours.
I documented my life on the road, sketching the faces I met and the places I visited. At first, it was all ink, with just a tiny hint of colour to bring things to life. But as the miles stretched on, the ink began to recede, making space for vibrant washes. I learned to dance with the “wet-on-wet” technique, to layer, to use light, to build volume, and to colour shadows to capture an ambiance rather than just a scene.
By the time I settled in New Zealand a few years later, going back to acrylics wasn’t even an option. I had embraced watercolour out of necessity and ended up making it my own.
Four years ago, I found my ‘place’ in Thames. Meeting a community of beautiful people whose creative lives mirrored my own gave me the confidence to move my art out of the privacy of my sketchbooks and onto the walls of the Vessel Gallery for all to see.
Today, I am still documenting my journey, but I have grown. My work has evolved from capturing what I see to bringing life to the intangible, ideas like Deep Breath or Healing Heart. My love for other mediums has come crashing back.
I now find myself surrounded by an extensive collection of tools, papers, and canvases, the kind of hoard every artist dreams of. I call this space The Creativity Room. It is where I host workshops and classes for artists of all ages and abilities, and where other creatives share their wisdom.
Watercolour may have been my ‘necessity’, but it became my second native tongue, much like the art community became my second family, and these are some of the best things that have ever happened to me.
Words by Laurie Mango
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