Laurie Freitag’s work moves between the recognizable and the abstract, beginning with photographs of landscapes, plants, water, architecture, and fragments of everyday life.

Growing up, Freitag was fascinated by the Impressionists. Reproductions of paintings by Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir surrounded her, and she was drawn to their use of color, light, and the way familiar scenes could become something more expressive. Although she never became a painter, that early fascination stayed with her.

Years later, through digital photography, Freitag discovered what she considers her own painting voice.

The Tidal Garden is rooted in photographs made during her travels, with much of the work influenced by the tropical colors and coastal landscapes she encountered in Florida.

Using a single digital editing tool—the Perspective tool—she stretches, shifts, and reshapes elements already present in her photographs. Colors blend, familiar shapes become distorted, and recognizable scenes move toward abstraction. What began as a photograph can take on the movement, texture, and freedom of a painting.

Freitag does not add new imagery, layer photographs, or construct scenes in Photoshop. Everything comes from the original photograph. The Perspective tool has become her way of working with an image much as a painter might work with a brush, pushing and pulling what is already there until something unexpected emerges.
Although the finished images sometimes resemble paintings, they remain photographs at their core. Look closely, and small fragments of the original scene can often still be discovered within the abstraction.

Freitag’s work is available for licensing for hospitality, healthcare, corporate, and other interior projects.

“I’m always adding new work to this portfolio.” — Laurie

The Tidal Garden-Drifting Gold

The Tidal Garden- Daydream

The Tidal Garden: Blue Divide

The Tidal Garden- Golden Fronds

Conceptual installation showing how the photograph could be adapted for a large-scale panoramic installation. Any resizing, extension, paneling, or production adjustments would be handled by the art consultant and/or fabricator, with artist approval.