a little bit more of the painting in progress

One more day of painting in the midst of fish and mini suns for our orders to galleries. I still feel guilty when I paint anything but our money-makers, but that's because we are still so in debt, so behind financially. We have been in shock and coming terms with losing the store, but I finally remembered on an emotional level why I didn't fight harder to keep the store after the hurricanes wiped us out.

Markel and I had a spark of realization that if we didn't simplify our lives and create the opportunity to make our original art we might miss out on the opportunity altogether. I can say that I am finally at peace with the fact that we have a different scenario now, that our life is smaller, more manageable, easier and better. We have learned and grown immeasurably from this whole experience and I no longer feel like a victim. I feel like we are fine, that we are stronger and better people. It was touch and go there for a minute, but we've come through it.

As for the painting......I am intending to make the background atmospheric and charged and I am painting it from left to right. My mother has noticed that I am using a lot more white, which is true, a lot of different whites. A very big change for me is using ochres, naples yellow, off-white, browns, since my palette has been pure colors for so many years.

This is a very personal piece for me. The figure at bottom, the middle sister represents so many people that I love, my sister Mary, my daughter Eva (who is an oldest -mine- and a middle -mine and Markel's-), my Great-Aunt Rose (who I didn't know well, but remember as a very rosy-faced woman), but as I am painting I think especially of my Aunt Margie, who I have a very important connection with. She has a talent for seeing the good in people, for being very giving, loving, angelic. She is very loved and admired. She is one of those adults who have a talent for making people feel noticed and understood. When I was a little girl bewildered by life as so many children are by their place in this big mysterious world, she had a talent for being a listener, hearing me, and contributing to my sense of well-being. I owe her a lot and I know a lot of people feel that way about her.

painting in progress: They Had the Feeling That They Were Surrounded

The painting that I'm working on now is about the idea that the souls of our loved ones stay with us, protecting us, guiding us after death. I don't know if it's true, but it feels true to me.

In my direct lineage we have a history of three sisters. My grandmother had two sisters (Emma, Rose, Eva), my mother has two sisters (June, Margaret, Phyllis) , I have two sisters (Leslie, Mary, Lynne), I have three daughters (Vanessa, Eva, Liz). When I am working on this painting I am thinking of all of those groups of sisters, eldest, middle, youngest and of my cousins, my nieces, my grand-daughter. I see and feel bits of them in the faces and emotions of the figures in the paintings, which are just out of my head. I'm not painting these from life.

I think of my mother's mother all of the time. I imagine her soul being nearby sometimes. I didn't know my father's mother. I do know that from my mother's mother, came all of these strong, vibrant, alive women and babies.

The painting is also about the innocence of children and their knowingness . My daughters, when they were very, very little (2-3 years old) used to tell me of the time that they were my mommie...."Do you remember when I was your mommie?" they would ask me.

Leslie Victoria Leland- paintings 2006-2007

Top Photo: You Will Have Enough (acrylic on canvas) 12x16 $650
2nd from top: Mangoes in the Keys (acrylic on canvas) 24x48 $1200
3rd from top: Winter Flowers (acrylic on canvas) 24x36 $750
Bottom photo: Shaded Figure (acrylic on canvas) 24x 36 ($1200) SOLD

Leslie Leland- New Work

We left the Keys and moved back to Ann Arbor last summer in 2006. Both Markel and I have been much more focused on our original work than we were able to be in the Keys, when we had a large operation to oversee.
photo: See the World: Receive and Give is about the tremendous role a parent or caregiver gives an infant. The caregiver is that infants whole world. When the infant sees the face of his parent or anyone else that cares for her, she is defining her whole world through that experience. It is that first and sustaining relationship that allows an individual to form the ability to receive love and then ultimately give love.
18x18, acrylic on canvas
price: $1200

Markel Leland- sold in the Keys

Top photo: The rectangular format of this painting represents a departure for Markel, who is better known for his cut-out, free-form, figures, faces, animals. The painting features glass, wire, acrylic paint on metal with a resin coating. It is 30 inches x 60inches and sold for $1100 in 2004.

Bottom photo: This is quintessential Markel, bent and formed 3/8ths thick steel rod, with pounded 3-D painted metal features, hand-painted glass, woven wire. Originally designed as a standing piece with a huge double stem and base, it was ultimately sold as a wall piece. Wall piece size: 50inches tall X 72inches wide. sold in 2005 for $1300.

Leslie Leland- work sold in the Keys

These three paintings are part of a rare, (rare because there were so few original pieces from that part of our lives) collection of pieces that were completed and sold during our 7 years in the Keys. While we learned an immeasurable amount about the retail art business and were constantly working on painting and improving our purplebabydaddies design line, it was not a fruitful period for Markel and me in the exploration and creation of our original art.
See www.purplebabydaddies.blogspot.com to view our design line

Markel Leland- Big Heads

These are pieces that Markel made while we lived in Key West. They are painted metal with resin, wire, glass embellishments. Each of them were sold for $950.