Featured Artist Leslie Chandler

Artist Leslie Chandler presents a collection of paintings that bring the majestic landscape of Canada to life. View more of her portfolio by visiting her website.

 

 

I was fortunate. Not only did I grow up surrounded by Canada’s incredible mountains, oceans, lakes, forests and islands, and had parents who took me hiking, camping and fishing, but I also had a father who made a living as an artist and who inspired me from a very young age.

 

 

Art and Canadian landscapes are truly embedded in my soul. It seems inevitable that I paint the natural wonders I see all around me in the country I love.

 

 

Near my home, in a scenic rural Ontario village, I frequently walk or cycle along local trails. I stop quite often to snap a moment when my eye catches a reflection or a combination of textures or colours that may be destined for a future canvas.

 

 

Most of my previous watercolour or acrylic landscapes could be described as contemporary Canadian impressionism. I now find my work leaning more and more toward contemporary Canadian abstraction.

 

 

I’m drawn to unexpected combinations of scale, colour, texture and the variability of focus as impacted by constantly changing light—light that we might see, for instance, in sunlight glistening and sparkling both in and out of focus on water’s undulating surface.

 

 

I have many paintings yet to be realized still percolating in the back of my mind where I do most of my preliminary compositional work.

 

 

This is an important step for me, because if I can’t visualize it, it will never emerge as a painting. Once I start a canvas, I can already “see” the finished piece. But most of the work happens unseen.

 

 

As a recently retired award-winning Visual Arts teacher and an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, I currently enjoy the freedom to paint in my home studio. There I work on commissioned pieces, offer ArtpARTner workshops and continue to develop my personal style.

 

 

My original paintings and fine art reproductions can be found in private collections across Canada, the United States, England and Denmark.

 

Artist Leslie Chandler invites you to follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

 

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