Kirsty O'Leary-Leeson

Plumstead, Norfolk, United Kingdom

About Kirsty O'Leary-Leeson

Visit my website www.kirstyoleary.com Originally I trained as an illustrator and worked in publishing, however in 2009 after having spent some time raising more children than is really sensible I decided to escape from the Playground Mafia and I returned to Art college to study Fine Art. I graduated with a First Class degree in 2011 from Norwich University of the Arts. Since then I have exhibited widely across the UK, and have work in public and private collections here and internationally, my work is now far better travelled than I am. I have been a finalist in the International Saatchi Drawing Showdown, featured in series 2 of the BBC 2 Programme 'Show Me the Monet' and was Visual Art Trader's Artist of the Month, they wrote of my work: "The senses of emotional uncertainty, of time evaporating and of forgotten memories in Kirsty's drawings are made all the more powerful by the beautiful and precise execution of the images." Although I still paint with my illustration and portraiture work, my Fine Art body of work is based around drawing. Artist Statement "Landscape is a portrait of the soul" I explore the spaces we exist in, both physical and psychological. I use the landscape which surrounds me as a metaphor for my inner life of imagination and emotion. The material and immaterial are not separate but are reliant on each other to create meaning in our lived reality. Drawing dominates my practice at present as the media most compliments and mirrors my subject matter, which is expressing facets of our existence. In drawing there is a relation with the provisional and unfinished, it exists in a state of suspense so connecting it with the lived life experience. Drawing records the unfolding of an event, not the fixed reality of an object. It is a dialogue between our thoughts and our experience of the real; it has always been aligned with thinking and ideas, it has as much to do with reflection as with observation. I draw what I know and experience not just what I see. These are not drawings from life, but drawings of life; drawing the relation between the visible and the invisible. The fragmentary nature of the images reflects that although we live a linear existence, what we currently experience is altered by memories and expectations, our present being created by these absent moments. The sharp contrasts also convey emotion and induce contemplation in the viewer; they suggest a theme of constant change as the eye moves through the transitioning spaces of constructed and negative spaces. People often look at my work not sure what media it is, is it some kind of photo or a print? They comment that they have never seen anything like it before. My artworks are all hand drawn with a pencil, however I do not work on paper; this is because the textured surface of paper always becomes an integral part of a drawing, however my work is purely about the image, I want it to exist free from it's substrate. I have wooden boards sprayed with gesso and lightly sanded down to give a very smooth surface onto which I draw directly. Gesso is an unforgiving medium to work on, unless the mark is very light you cannot rub it out, so I have to work carefully and meticulously. Finally I have the boards sprayed with a protective acrylic lacquer which effectively makes the work wipe clean. The art critic David Lee said of my work "It's not often you find work that wants to draw you in". I think part of this is because of the purity of the image achieved through my chosen media. I appeared in the BBC 2 Programme 'Show Me the Monet', you can watch my 15 minutes of fame on you tube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc8LCC9vHx0&feature=plcp Find me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/artistkirstyolearyleeson and Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/kirstyolearyleeson