Laura Price’s painting of Parliament Hill Lido

THE agent and the gallery owner have traditionally been gatekeepers, a buffer between the artist and viewer – and one that takes a slice of any sales.

But it doesn’t have to be this model – and artist Laura Price is one of a number of painters, etchers and sculptors who are stepping away from having their work managed by a middleman and taking greater control of shows and sales.

Laura, who lives in Dartmouth Park, is a member of a new exhibitors space, The Bakery Gallery in Camden Passage, Islington.

It’s an artist collective, and the second of its type. The original, known as The Bakery due to the premises original use, began in Portobello Road two years ago and is run by artists for artists. Its success is such that last month the doors of its second venue opened.

Laura’s work spans vistas that use a fine art approach to a neighbourhood she knows well.

“An artist allows themselves a licence to create an image as your mind’s eye sees it – and still be true to the subject matter,” she says.

An example is a painting she has completed of the lido was created on an overcast day. While the cloud-filled sky is apparent, the lido shimmers and glistens in a manner swimmers will recognise.

“Painting water is lovely to study and technically difficult to complete,” she explains. “In my lido picture, I have made it a more translucent blue than it was – a blue like in David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash. I loved it and thought if it’s good enough for Hockney, I can use that blue. I sat at the lido café to complete the work – and the light there is unreal.”

Laura has now exhibited across Camden, from a show at the lido to appearing at the Affordable Art Fair on East Heath.

Laura’s painting of a cricket match at Regent’s Park

She leads a double life. As well as an accomplished painter, she works as a consultant in pulmonary hypertension at the Royal Brompton.

This marriage of aesthetics and science mirrors the interests of one of her greatest influences – her late father David Price who died aged 93 earlier this year.

She recalls how as a teenager, she was torn between her love of art and her love of science – a balancing act that was helped by her father’s inspiration.

“He was a dentist by trade – but a polymath with a wide interest in the arts and culture,” she recalls. “He loved fine wine, travelling and was the best read man I have ever known. He always encouraged me to seek out beauty, and find it in all the places I looked.”

Her school days were spent at a college that had an emphasis on nurturing professionals. She took A-level art – along with the three sciences, and faced a choice: to do a foundation course at St Martins, or head to Bristol to study medicine.

“My secondary school had a strong emphasis on business, finance, law, medicine – disciplines they considered to be a route into a proper career,” she says.

She considered architecture – but instead turned to respiratory medicine.

Such an important job has not distracted from her art. “I have always wanted an artistic sideline.” she adds.

Her work took further shape when her third child was born in 2019. Maternity leave gave her time to hone her style.

“I had 15 months off and I thought: I’m going to art school,” she adds.

She signed up for classes at the Hampstead School of Art and they offered both inspirational tutoring and support when she arrived at sessions with a new baby on her hip.

Her studies included etching – “not a very child-friendly environment,” she adds – and as she worked on techniques, themes developed in tandem.

“I have always enjoyed taking pictures of the area where I live – and I could not stop painting the Heath. On maternity leave I was on the Heath all the time. I took lots of pictures and did lots of sketches.”

An etching of Primrose Green

It was fitting that she should hold her first show of her work at the Parliament Hill Lido

“We called the exhibition Swimming On The Heath – and that prompted a series that featured all of the ponds,” she says.

Her influences are wide.

“If you paint the Heath, you cannot help but be inspired by John Constable,” she says. “I look at his work constantly.”

And her favoured colour scheme is also recognisable. “I use tones that are from Edward Hopper,” she explains.

After choosing her subject matter, Laura has a clearly defined process.

“I consider how to start a painting, its composition, the time of day I aim to capture,” she says. “You need to think about where the light is coming from and where the horizon is. It is more interesting not to have a centrally placed horizon.

“I like to catch the light at the start and end of the day. I have been influenced by the likes of Magritte. Magritte plays with light – he can produce a piece that is dark at first glance, and then you look carefully and see how he uses light sources in a subtle and compelling way.”

Once she has chosen a theme, she studies the vista from numerous vantage points.

“I work a lot from photographs, which I blow up for details – it is a modern, practical way of doing it,” she says. “I use sketches and compositions too, but life means I cannot sit next to the Ladies Pond for six hours at time. I use some creative licence to add a swimmer or two – but you cannot make up the way the light falls.”

Other techniques shared by her Hampstead School of Art tutors included learning to paint the perfect tree – helped by an unconventional trick.

“We were shown how to use a piece of broccoli in place of a tree to consider how the light falls,” she says.

As well as a safety valve from the pressures of being a consultant, her day job helps in other ways, too.

“My training as a doctor does help with life drawing, for example, which I did a lot of in my 20s,” she says. “But my subject is landscapes and I use it as an antidote. It may seem unusual combining a life of medicine and art – but for me it is pure joy.”

And her work allows her to record the life she witnesses. A recent image is of her family playing cricket in Regent’s Park.

“It was a summer evening and the light was casting long shadows across the grass,” she recalls. “It is a way of documenting our lives, of recording what I have seen.”

• The Bakery Art Gallery is at 6 Charlton Place, Off Camden Passage, N1 8AJ. See www.thebakeryartgallery.com or www.lauralondonart.com