Sep 20

Leslie Watts

Leslie Watts is a realist portrait and still life painter who has exhibited consistently in Ontario, Canada and in England. She is represented by Village Studios gallery in Stratford, Canada where she has participated in almost a dozen exhibitions, both solo and group, since 2008. Leslie has also displayed dual exhibitions at Mall Galleries in London, Burgh House in Hampstead, England, Gallery Stratford in Stratford, Canada, and dual showings at The Firehall Theatre in Gananoque, Canada. Leslie has performed several important portrait commissions including for the University of Toronto, Jim Leech, the lieutenant governor of Ontario, The University of Saskatchewan, and of Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada, for Rhodes House, Oxford, England. She has also received grants from Ontario Arts Council and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.

The paintings are remarkable for being unremarkable as Leslie portrays everyday middle class people you would see at your local grocery store or as your next door neighbor. There remains no sense of fashion as she captures every imperfection on her figurative subjects such as legions and birthmarks on their arms and faces. Leslie paints with such detail in a way which she even captures the pores of the skin and various unflattering wrinkles.

Using egg tempera paint, Leslie becomes focused on capturing every detail to the point where the paintings could easily be mistaken for being photographs, if not for the sense of misty, crystalized atmosphere she paints in the air. Reminiscent of Germanic renaissance painting such as the work of Albrecht Dürer, Leslie does not stylize her subjects as known to the Italian renaissance. These portraits and figures greet the viewer with unposed smiles, various facial expressions, and even concerned faces as if captured in a random moment of time. Leslie typically uses interiors or monochromatic backgrounds to portray her subjects. The interiors are quite ordinary with furnishings you would see at a family owned diner or picked up at a local antique shop or garage sale. With humility, her paintings convey an atmospheric tension and analysis of deferential reality rather than individual interpretations.

Jack (pictured above) portrays a dignified old man sitting in a setting which looks like a modest diner or civic community center engaging in conversation while drinking a cup of coffee. The stark contrast between blues and whites creates a delightful composition between the variation of Jack’s bright white colored shirt and the various blue drapery / chairs and blue patterns on the white cup. Leslie captures all of Jack’s imperfections such as his overgrown eyebrows and various aging sunspots on his skin along with veins and hairs on his arms. The subject carries a firm, dignified expression on his face even as the neck of the skin appears to be folding and sagging with unflattering age.

Leslie Watts can be described as a true realist in her conveying of actual life as opposed to a sense of theatrics or idealization. She enhances her subjects' imperfections in a way which would be otherwise ignored in the saturation of photography, creating the impression of a relaxed environment filled with familiar people. Leslie’s characters have a sense of dignity and respect despite appearing quite ordinary through naturalized expressions and soft, natural lighting effects.