Lauren Shantall currently works in acrylics on canvas. The subject of her paintings oscillates between an examination of the minutiae of domestic life and her engagement with the external, natural landscape beyond her home.

 Born in Durban, South Africa in 1976, Lauren currently resides permanently in Cape Town, South Africa and has done so since completing her postgraduate studies in English at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1995. At present, she has a demanding career in communications and is the founder and director of a multiple award-winning agency Scout PR & Social Media (named best agency in South Africa at the 2020 Media Innovator Awards). She devotes time to furthering her painting practice amongst her various work commitments to her clients and staff, and her family commitments to her husband and their son.

 Lauren took art as a main subject in high school, where she was jointly awarded the Carmel College Art Prize in her final year. Upon matriculation, a scholarship to study English Literature directed her career path into media and communications. Not wanting to relinquish her passion for fine art, she pursued her art studies outside of tertiary institutions. Over the years, she has taken live drawing classes with Clare Menck, painting classes with Diana Page, and joined a regular painting group with friends. Since September 2018, she has been taking weekly creativity classes with artist and curator, Sue Kaplan.

ARTIST STATEMENT

‘In these images of plants, colour is a device that denotes joy, and marks that (im)perceptible surge of love that occurs when the subtle connections between living things – between plant person and human person, between parent and plant baby, between growing person and plant teacher – are recognised and honoured.

Akin to the indoor plant movement prevalent in the 1970s, linked to the rise of Organicism as a lifestyle philosophy, today’s homes have brought even more plants indoors, in a more directed way, than ever. Social Media abounds with botanical styling, numerous pot plant #tags and masterclasses on how to style your plant babies for the urban jungles of now.

In this we can read so many things – reverence for nature, heightened awareness of greening and green issues, the place for plant therapy as an antidote to digital disconnection, and the need to express care and nurture growth and positivity. These paintings embrace all of this – from observing the macro trend to participating in it, and depicting a family of plant babies at home.’