Captured Moments

By Fred Tscheulin

                In today’s computer-driven, digitized, point-and-click art world, it is truly wonderful to meet a gifted artist who can create a family treasure using nothing more than charcoal, paper and a few simple tools.

                Lauren Young is a professional portrait artist whose immense talent greatly exceeds her years. She has always loved to draw and, as far back as elementary school, her mother referred to her as “my little artist.”  But not until she had completed two years as a computer science major at Virginia Tech did she decide, with the support of her family, to pursue her true passion and work full-time as a portrait artist.

                Lauren was born in Ohio. She moved to Virginia in 1990 and is a graduate of Liberty High School in Bedford. As she put it, “Art was always fun and I enjoyed it but never thought it would be more than a hobby.” Until then, Lauren’s training consisted of school art classes. The summer after her senior year, she began to draw family portraits. She has four brothers and sisters and assorted pets, so there was plenty of subject matter. Always proud of Lauren’s work, her mother would show them to friends, who were quite impressed.  After a while, Lauren began to get orders for portraits from her mother’s co-workers. Her hobby began to pay off a little, and she soon realized her drawings were more than just “refrigerator art.”

                Recognizing her daughter’s talent and love of art, Lauren’s mother signed her up for private lessons with artist George Wills of Bedford. He spotted her talent almost immediately and provided the opportunity for her to teach a five-week summer course in portraiture to young girls. That step not only helped develop Lauren’s artistic skills, but her self confidence as well.

                Armed with this positive experience, Lauren was prepared to take the next step and pursue a career as a portrait artist. One day her mother asked her, “Given a choice, what would you want to do forever?” Lauren responded, “Draw portraits.”  Her mom replied, “Do it.” So at 19 years old Lauren put her computer science career aside to pursue her dream to become a professional portrait artist.

                Lauren’s first job was as a portrait artist for Landmark Design where she handled a steady stream of charcoal portrait work for three years. She was now “in the business” but felt removed from the clients. She wanted to be able to build a relationship with the client, gain personal insight and experience their direct feedback when they first viewed the portrait. That was missing at Landmark, so two years ago she took a leap of faith and established her own business, Captured Moments.

                “I’m very happy,” Lauren said. “The business has experienced steady growth based on referrals from satisfied clients, friends and business associates at the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce.”

                To gain recognition, Lauren has also participated in Bedford’s Centerfest, exhibited in local galleries and successfully auctioned her art service on eBay. Her web site, www.capturedmoments.bz, provides anyone the opportunity to view samples of her work and even place an order and send reference material via e-mail. Especially appealing are the wedding portraits, children, and the multiple portrait compositions, such as the one depicting six generations of the McGlauflin family from Maine, dating back to the civil war. In addition to the portraits of people, there are beautiful portraits of family pets and homes. Besides portraits suitable for framing, Lauren can also produce personal note cards from her work.

For more information, contact Lauren Young at 540.874.4036, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or www.capturedmoments.bz.