about the artist
Remote landscapes, mountains, turquoise seas, solitary figures and trees are all recurring subjects in Lesley Burr's work - she is attracted to living in such places. Having spent 10 years on the remote Shetland Islands she now lives and works in Argyll, on the West Coast of Scotland where a softer landscape is influential. There are trees in this landscape, unlike in Shetland where they battled for survival against the elements but there is still a sense of the wilderness, coupled with a feel for the isolation of searching and belonging that is part of the human condition.
Lesley's paintings, often starting outside as sketches from life are no mere recorders of landscape, they have a strongly symbolic language that speaks of a significant experience. You as the onlooker become the witness to a mysterious event or place. There is a sense of the sacred in her work, of nature being the vehicle of this - using colour and metaphorical imagery she makes paintings that have a power that speaks from a deeper place, a stillness, both peaceful and unsettling is present and at times shivers with emotion.
The paintings have been described as unusually sensitive with a complex colour layering process that builds a sense of depth to the surface that is compared with looking into a deep pool.
Lesley often works with powerful underlying themes such as the cycle of life, witnessed through the changes of the seasons with the aim being consistently to develop simplicity of form - to pare the landscape down to the basics. Her recent paintings are all influenced by water and the ideas associated with climatic change as well as the physical environment of the Argyll rainforest.
The "Painting Venice" series was inspired by an artists' trip to Venice last year and the "Journeys" series is influenced by recent trips to Shetland, Norway, and Argyll, exploring the physical, mystical and physiological journeys that people undertake.
"I’ve just returned from a weeks painting holiday in the Scottish Highlands where my eyes were opened to a new way of relating to colour..."
Read 'Sensitivity to colour in the garden,' by John Frater, on the Shoot gardening website.
© artistlesleyburr@googlemail.com
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