Laurie Barna is a native northern Californian, who currently resides in Los Gatos. As a child, she knew that she had a God-given gift for drawing photorealistically and later, took several Art classes in college while pursuing a professional nursing degree. Her first experience with watercolor came in the fall of 1999, when she took a Los Gatos Recreation Department class. It was love at first brushstroke!

In her second student show in the spring of 2001, her painting of the Arc de Triomphe was selected by her peers as “Best of Show” and it sold. Her painting “Maine Lighthouse,” which combines watercolor and rice paper collage, garnered her August 2003’s “Artist of the Month” award by her Los Gatos Art Association peers. She was again awarded LGAA's "Artist of the Month" in March 2006 for her painting, "'Big Red' with Yellow Water Canna." “I love the challenge of painting with such a versatile yet exacting medium and creating that certain ‘glow’ using color and value.”

In the Spring of 2006, she took the challenge of watercolor painting "Beyond the Obvious" and began painting the Statue of Liberty as a "still life" and in series. She discovered that she is a content painter, and this series has given her a "voice" to communicate her strong feelings about Lady Liberty and America. Through this continuing series, she asks the viewer to think...to question...and to remember.