Linda Leslie

A sketch or a painting is always changing and will continue to change, as the model will, and as I will.

Hailed by gallery owner Jay Etkin as bringing a “fresh voice” to figurative art, Leslie approaches her portraits with traditional techniques and a contemporary eye. The artist, originally from Connecticut, studied at the Art Students League of New York and the National Academy School of Fine Arts in New York before moving to New Mexico. She has dedicated over thirty years to classical figurative painting, developing a signature style described as “romantic” and “gracefully contemplative,” where intimate views are often balanced by “splashes of light or color” made with Impressionist strokes.

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 do not sketch daily. I often wish I did. It is wonderful practice. I usually sketch in a class or group session. I also will hire a private model for a few sessions of one long pose and work the drawing into a painting, with the help of photography.

I generally sketch with graphite mechanical pencils in a journal. I enjoy charcoal and Conté 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 learn more about myself from my sketching and painting than from my thinking. Something will appear that I would not have been able to put into words.