Artist research - Emily Leonard

Emily Leonard is a full time American landscape artist, from Tennessee. Most of her subject matter concentrates on observational paintings of trees,forests and empty roads. Her work style is somewhere between representational and abstract art. Although Leonard uses a variety of mixed media, her main media is oil paint. Here are some of her paintings bellow.

(Under tender limbs buds will start to gather,mixed media on gessoed paper, 2009) (What You Whispered Keeps Me Satisfied, oil 2005) (Tyne Boulevard / I know I should go,oil, 2006)

The reason I like Leonard's work is because she looks at everyday things like a trees, that most people don't really take notice of or they find trees to common and boring, and she creates something very beautiful and expressive through the use of the right colours, shades and brushstrokes. She does't even always try to create photographic or realistic paintings of landscape or nature, she just goes with how, what she is observing is making her feel, and reveals her feelings and thoughts through expressive, momentary and prompt sweep of the paintbrush. It is quite easy to tell this when observing her work, as she often leaves clear brush stroke lines on the paintings. 

In a interview Leonard has said "My process and practice mimic these movements: I break down an image and build it back slowly with hundreds of washy layers, glazes and gestures.... I want them to come upon the viewer as such – slowly and intimately, as if the viewer feels like he found this image instead of me. I want to get at the experience of being in your body in a place. Rather than painting the tree out the kitchen window".

One painting that really makes me imagine what it feels like being at that place is "Follow That Lonesome Roadside, oil, 2006"

When I look at this image I straight away think of a freezing winter evening at sunset, that makes me shiver. At first it's mainly because of the dark blue road that looks like it is covered in thick layers of ice, and the leafless trees all in the open, with only evergreen trees that create a shadowy and and gloomy atmosphere. The use of darker oil paint colours, like O-H blue deep together with burnt umber and green umber, creates a very cold, isolated and lonely feeling. As if indicating that the darkness will overrule the fading subtle sunlight, that adds some kind of warmth to the cool atmosphere. This may be due to the use of the dark shades of brown(burnt umber) creating darker tones that make the sky(napels yellow extra) look very gentle compared to the rest. Also the yellow((napels yellow extra) sky and the dark O-H blue deep road stand out well because yellow and blue primary colours compliment each other. The overall use of colour creates a harmonious effect to the whole image.

In her work Leonard uses natural and slightly blurred lines, to create blurred edges and smoothing boundaries, these with the help of graduated tone, add depth to the painting. Making it appear gloomy and faint, as well as more 3D.
Another way of how Leonard builds up depth  and modifies colours in her painting is trough glazing. Which is done by applying thin translucent layers of oil paint over and over each other. 

I think Leonard creates this kind of art work, because she sees beauty and is fascination in nature. She wants to express and share how she feels about something she finds amazing and calm, through painting it out so people could experience and understand what she has felt , maybe even remind them of something, or somewhere they have been or seen before. She doesn't just want the viewers to see her work as a "painting of nature" and nothing else, she wants them to use their senses and travel to that moment to imagine what it's like there etc. Because personally I find her work to be tranquil and peaceful.
I believe her work is very easy to relate to my theme as I am focusing on the environment and nature. And Leonard's landscape paintings have given me ideas and inspiration. I have already done work in her style, here are some pictures of my drawings etc. 

Sources
http://www.emilyleonard.com/