Laurin McCracken (AWS, NWS)​

Laurin McCracken (AWS, NWS)​ is a prominent American watercolor painter, born in 1942 in Meridian, Mississippi, and currently based in Fort Worth, Texas. He is a Signature Member of both the American Watercolor Society (AWS) and the National Watercolor Society (NWS), former National Chairman of Fabriano in Watercolor USA, and a judge of the Third Venice International Watercolor Festival.

McCracken holds a B.A. in Art and Architecture from Rice University and a Master's degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from Princeton University. For four decades he worked as a practicing architect and marketing director at several of the nation's leading firms. He began studying watercolor in 1999 and, following his retirement, has devoted himself entirely to painting.

Deeply influenced by the Dutch and Flemish Baroque still life tradition, McCracken works in a photorealistic style that brings to watercolor a level of technical precision and luminous detail traditionally associated with oil painting, with subjects ranging from still lifes and florals to landscapes. His work is held in the collections of the National Art Museum of China, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, the Spartanburg Art Museum, and other institutions, and has been featured in the Splash watercolor annual (issues 9 through 13). He has participated in major international exhibitions including the Beijing International Art Biennale, the Shenzhen International Watercolor Biennial, and the International Watercolor Convention in Fabriano, Italy. Among his many awards are the Hardie Gramatky Memorial Award from the American Watercolor Society and the Kent Day Coes Memorial Award from the Allied Artists of America.