Relating to Nature
Thiel was the Grand Prize winner of International Artist magazine’s Challenge No. 112, Favorite Subjects.
Self-taught painter Lesley Thiel has had a widereaching career in art, where she first began as an equine painter and turned to the more classical figurative works after eight years. Her paintings can be described as contemporary realism with elements of magical realism. Thiel says her style is realistic, but it cannot be identified as hyperrealism or photorealism.
“My style is quite tight and I work with a relatively limited palette, which I find helps create color harmony,” she says. “I work with small sable brushes and sable blenders to create an almost brushstroke free surface, especially on the skin. The most important element of any of my painting is the model. I want to try and communicate their emotions and vulnerability
in my work, so that they pull the viewer into their story.”
Thiel’s inspiration comes from nature and human’s relationship with it. “I have felt a deep connection to the natural world since I was a child. I think many children feel this way. That’s why I mostly paint young girls and young women, and tell stories of their connection to the earth,” Thiel explains. Her current series features one model—10-year-old Addie—who she dresses in whimsical headdresses and collars “to express my ideas about the restrictions placed upon girls and their empowerment.”
Each composition begins with a single element of inspiration and grows from there. Sometimes it’s a flower, others times it’s the pose the model has struck. “I will do a small sketch of the idea with the flow and shapes I envision. Then I move various elements in it, leaving and returning, thinking and changing, until I have all the pieces that I think are right,” the artist says. “All too often, an idea will not work when it is made visual, mostly because I have made it too complicated. I find most compositions simplify as they progress.”
As the narrative comes alive, Thiel sources costumes, makes headdress and collars—anything that creates visual interest and relates to the theme. “I work from photographs, since my paintings take many, many hours to complete. I take hundreds of photographs of my model, combining them to get the pose and effect I am looking for. Equally, the other elements of my paintings are from photographs I take of wildlife, plants and scenery.”
Thiel’s artwork has been included in a number of exhibitions and has received accolades such as a Certificate of Excellence from the Portrait Society of America and awards from the Art Renewal Center. Her paintings can be found in numerous collections, including the Art Renewal Center Collection and the Bennett Collection. She is represented by RJD Gallery in Bridgehampton, New York.