British artist, Lesley Giles, worked and exhibited in London most of her life until she moved to Florida in 2003 with her American husband. In 2012 they moved to the Eastern Shore, Maryland, where Lesley paints in her studio overlooking the Choptank river. Her colorful paintings portray her fascination with water, washing lines floating in the wind and solitary, deserted buildings. She works with traditional media like oil, watercolor and pastel to focus on contemporary issues like the effect of development on our landscapes and the strange beauty in the ordinary. A figurative artist her style is post-modern and formalized with a wave to abstraction. Important influences are Hockney and Hopper.

Recent series include “Clouds”, “New York & New England”, “Covid Washing Lines - the experiences of women during lockdown”, “Eastern Shore - history reflected through the Puddles of Time” “Oceanshore Boulevard - a linear journey along the Florida coast “ and Paintings of the UK.

A graduate of the Royal College of Art (MFA) & Goldsmiths’ College London (BFA) Lesley has exhibited her work in galleries and museums in the UK, Europe, USA and China. She was Visiting Artist at Xinjiang College of Art, Urumqi, China in 1996. Her work has been published by Harper Collins in “Watercolour Masterclass” and “The Challenge of Landscape Painting” as well as being featured in many magazines.

In 2021 Lesley was honored to win an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland Arts Council. In 2019 her painting “Hurricane, Sundance Realty” received “Honorable Mention” in the national juried exhibition “Signs of the Times” at Gallery Clarendon, Washington DC. Her painting “The Hill”, celebrating Maryland, was chosen by the Maryland Federation of Art to hang in the House of Representatives in Annapolis. In 2014, her Florida painting “WW2 Watch Tower” was chosen to be “signature” image for “Landscapes of Regional Artists”, the Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover DE.

“Lesley Giles blurs the line between traditional notions of landscape and graphic arts. Her exaggerated colors and stylized patterns, as seen in her striped skies, separate her
from earlier artists”. Ryan Grover, Curator, Biggs Museum of American Art, Delaware, 2014

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I work with traditional media like oil, acrylic, watercolor and pastel. I collect my images from long walks and travel observing contemporary issues like the effect of development on our landscapes and the beauty in the ordinary. In the USA I have painted floods, hurricanes and lava flows. I consider my work to be figurative, post-modern and formalized with a wave to abstraction. Dramatic light and color in the water, sky and land are my inspiration. Most of my work depicts the solitary part of human life so you will not find many people in my paintings. I am fascinated by deserted places and fabrics in the landscape like washing lines floating in the wind or tarps binding unknown objects. There is usually a bird floating overhead. I flatten the space in a painting then bisect it with dark shapes or poles or cables. White plays a significant role, probably from years of watercolor painting.