Diana Leslie

I was born in Orkney . The place stayed with me while I wasn’t here. So I came back in 2006 to live and work as an artist.
Landscape has become a big subject for me.  I can paint Orkney outside. The wind and dynamic light are energies which make me happy; they fly by while the mass is going nowhere.
I went to Glasgow School of Art and graduated in Drawing and Painting in 1998. My second subject was printmaking.

I move between source material depending on the weather painting flowers, drawing from other artists, drawing from collaborations which make me see things differently (Christie Williamson in Arc O Mons). I’m not of the school of thought that believes Carravagio would have loved photoshop had it been around in his day because I think he probably loved his lapis lazuli paint and paint is fairly elemental. It hasn’t changed much in 500 years. Neither do I wan’t painting to be old mastery. I’m content with the idea that if I represent my here and now it has some currency.
And painting has a magical property. It can hold on to energy and strange things like freedom. Even when the artist is long gone. But it also tells it’s own truth.If the artist is bored or complacent that will live on in the work, a bit Dorien Grey.

So paint on. I hope you enjoy the site,

Diana