Rising Artist: Laurenthepainter earns recognition for hyper realistic art

courtesy of Lauren Sanderfer

by Katherine Lopez, Reporter
March 24, 2022

A lot of people fail to capture the young artists there are today. There are kids to teens and young adults who are very talented with art and there isn’t much attention to it, but there is a platform where a lot of them get a good amount of recognition, and that platform is TikTok. There are so many artists under the hashtag “arttok” and one of my favorites is Lauren Sanderfer, who goes by ‘laurenthepainter’ on social media. She specializes in hyper realistic art. 

Sanderfer is 21 and she started drawing when she was around 8 or 9, but started painting five years ago when she was 16. Her main genre is surrealism and hyper realistic portraiture.

“I attempt to combine those two genres into one with my paintings. I just love anything whimsical or fantasy-like,” said Sanderfer in a direct message.

She started her TikTok painting page in Spring 2020 and today has nearly a million followers. 

Sanderfer is waking and sleeping. She said, “My art is mostly inspired by my dreams. I have super vivid dreams every night, and I want to capture those themes and visuals in a hyper realistic way.”

 She had also posted a TikTok where she posted her recent paintings and she explained how she was feeling when she was working on them.

Here’s an example of what she posted while painting this canvas.

Just like writer’s, block, artists can also get an artist’s block.

“I definitely get distracted, but most of the time, I am filled with inspiration. I have a list of 50+ ideas that I want to make into paintings, and I keep adding to it.”

 Her popular website could also be part of her motivation. 

To finish a large painting it takes her about a month, and one of those paintings can sell for thousands of dollars.

These are one of her most expensive art pieces on sale.

She also does customized paintings for her followers  and her prices are influenced by the size of the canvases.

Standerfer attends college and is currently in her third year. She plans to go to graduate school solely for art. 

Just like people have a playlist for music, I have a playlist for art, and Sanderfer would be my top choice. She started at a young age and now she is making money out of what she loves most.