In retrospect it seems obvious that Leslie Ann Butler would become an artist. Her father was not only an engineer, but also a fine artist. Her mother worked creatively with fabrics and textiles. Her great grandmother was an accomplished oil painter.
She started drawing when she was a little girl, and painted with oils and acrylics in high school. Portraits, landscapes, still lifes -- even cartoons – she loved them all. At that time she did a portrait of Robert Frost, her favorite poet, and sent it to him. She was thrilled to receive a personal thank you letter which her mother framed.
a passion for portraits
This was the beginning of her passion for doing portraits, which have received much notoriety. She has been commissioned by former first lady Barbara Bush, Michael Jackson, and Rue McClanahan of The Golden Girls, among others. In 2002, she was selected by Forbes Magazine as one of the top pet portrait artists in the country.
She concentrated successfully on portraits and other figurative work, such as Pensées du Noir (Night Thoughts or Paris Nights), for several years but longed to expand into the mysteries of abstract. Not quite understanding about how abstract worked, she took a few classes and talked to friends who were successful abstract painters. But after all this research, she realized that abstract could not be taught. She was working on a series called "Paris Nights" and had a show up of about 20 paintings. Deciding to challenge herself, she decided to change out the show to all abstracts in one month. “I went into my studio every morning not knowing what I was doing, but forced myself to work for hours. Finally, it started to flow. I had to stop thinking about what to do; there’s no room for left brain function at all. No structure, no limits, nothing has to look like anything. It was an amazing experience. In 17 days I had 20 paintings, and was ready for the show.”
“The hardest part of painting is allowing the muse to tell me what to do.”
an entry into abstracts
Successfully working on Soul Struck, her first abstract series, Leslie Ann had a deeply spiritual experience during meditation. Images of paintings – completely different from any work she had done before-- flashed across her mind one by one like slide show. She began working on them the next day, and decided to call the series “Meditations.” To create them, she had to work on the floor; but after several months, she broke her toe. Not able get down on or up from the floor, she had to put “Meditations” on hold. When she finally healed, she couldn’t wait to get back to paintings. But disappointingly, the crystal clear pictures had disappeared from her mind. She is still creating in Meditations, but it’s more difficult since she has to work from the small thumbnails scratched out while seeing the “slide show.”
Leslie Ann continues with Soul Struck and Paris Nights and has added two new series: Inner Mosaic, inspired by her view of the city at night, and Light and Silence, abstracted beach scenes inspired by the loss of her beloved dog, Gary, who was stolen on Thanksgiving and who so loved the ocean .
Living above the city and feeling its ever-present energy has inspired my series “Inner Mosaic.”
Lost love and longing inspires “Light and Silence.”
