We are very pleased to be able to have Leslie Lee of Portland Oregon show her work at the Chehalem Mountain Art Affair this year.
"After 30 years of making figurative sculpture, 10 years of painting figurative subjects and one year of posting Daily Drawings on social media, I am now exploring colorful abstract oil paintings with seemingly unrelated figurative elements that develop into unexpected narratives. In letting go of pictorial logic and pre-meditated metaphor I have found freedom in composition, boldness in color choices and magic in following the random line. These paintings begin with an abstract, random application of acrylic color, then the figurative artist in me re-emerges to tease out people and animals, bugs, landscapes and odd shapes which have nothing to do with each other until… they do. I let the colors, shapes and brush marks lead the way using oil paint and oil sticks to complete the paintings."
–Leslie Lee
Bio - Leslie B. Lee
Leslie (Baumgartner) Lee was encouraged to pursue make art
as a child and has continued to do so all her life. After many artistic accomplishments in elementary and high
school she went on to earn her Bachelors of Fine Art at Washington University
in St. Louis, Missouri with an emphasis on graphic design. After graduation she worked as a
designer for twelve years, including time in Iran doing graphics for a private
Persian Gulf resort.
Returning to her home town of Portland Oregon, marriage and
motherhood, Lee also returned to her childhood love of clay. In the next 25
years her career in ceramics earned her national representation and a cover
story in the nation’s leading publication Ceramics
Monthly. Lee taught workshops throughout her career and conducted
summer workshops at Hummingbird Studios, the adobe and strawbale showcase of
alternative construction Lee built in southern Oregon with her husband, ceramic
artist Dennis Meiners.
A bout with ovarian cancer in 2002 gave Lee an opportunity
to step away from the physical demands of clay work and discover oil painting. Her
latest paintings are colorful abstractions with random figurative elements that
develop into unexpected narratives. This new body of work will be shown at the
Golden Gallery in Beaverton, Oregon March 15- April 31 2015 along with
selections from the 365 Daily Drawings Lee posted to the internet in 2014.
