Eyes of the Flower Painting

I've been drawing and painting since I was young. During my teenage years, while my brothers joined baseball and hockey leagues, I enrolled in weekly art lessons with a professional artist and mentor. She taught me the fundamentals of oil painting and color theory, influenced by an impressionist wet-on-wet style. When it was time to choose a career, I was discouraged by my parents from pursuing a fine arts degree and instead chose architecture. Drafting was at first a difficult learning curve for me; it felt too limiting and structured after years of being encouraged to paint and sketch loosely and freely. I practiced as an architect for many years, but as I grew older and had the opportunity to travel the world and see world-class art firsthand, I felt a calling back to oil painting. I was, and still am, particularly inspired by cloisonnism, a post-impressionist style of painting characterized by bold colours and dark boundaries. Perhaps it called to me as a way to marry the impressionist training of my youth with the drafting and graphic skills I learned as an adult. When I came back to art I initially focused on painting buildings and urban scenes around my home city, Toronto. Then, COVID struck, and feeling the isolation, I also started painting introspective still lifes and florals, often featuring windows and views to other places. These days I balance a part-time architectural career alongside my time spent creating art and I feel deeply happy and privileged to spend my days this way. That's a glimpse into me and my art. Thanks for stopping by. With gratitude, Leslie