I have been studying classical/academic figure painting since 1979 and have reached a point in my career at which I choose to utilize that skill and exercise my hard-won artistic freedom to do some experimentation as well as practice what I know how to do. I am using a limited palette and begin by working either from life, previous drawings, or memory, allowing the painting to direct me in the course of its creation.
I am inspired by and work mostly with the female figure. I often create a feeling of contemplation and incorporate elements of beauty, fantasy, and magic. Some aspects that set my work apart from other contemporary figurative paintings are an atmosphere of romance and a feeling of quietude and peacefulness.
Every day I paint, and when I paint, I enter the world that I am creating in the painting.
“I admire artists like Leslie, who bring a fresh voice to figurative art. Leslie’s contribution is enormous and indeed much needed. The quality of how she moves paint is subtle, skillful and confident. You just don’t see that commitment every day.”
“…the mystery of the place and the beautiful use of color – black and yellow or gray – in such a subtle way that all becomes one. Very feminie and intuitive.”
I am inspired by the human figure found in contemplation, by beauty and the abstract design of life in a form of dance. I think about proportion, movement and feeling when sketching.
I generally sketch with graphite mechanical pencils in a journal. I enjoy charcoal and Conte crayon too. I will also sketch with graphite directly on an oil painting in progress.
Sketching keeps my eye working. It helps to keep my work loose and more confident. I feel calm, peaceful and happy when sketching. I try to think of nothing. I feel less pressure and more freedom than when painting.
Although the feeling of my sketches relates to the finished work, many times the finished piece is different from the original idea. A sketch or a painting is always changing and will continue to change, as the model will, and as I will. Although it is not my intention that the sketch becomes a finished work of art, many times it does. I try to put the two together: freedom and finish.
I have been studying classical/academic figure painting since 1979 and have reached a point in my career at which I choose to utilize that skill and exercise my hard-won artistic freedom to do some experimentation as well as practice what I know how to do. I am using a limited palette and begin by working either from life, previous drawings, or memory, allowing the painting to direct me in the course of its creation.