Born in Bundaberg, Leisa is a predominantly acrylic artist, with a long history in watercolor and gouache. Although trained professionally as a Graphic Design Artist, she is self taught in the mediums of acrylic and oils.
"At the age of 20 I became a full time, professional illustrator using watercolor and gouache and have been creating art in some form or another ever since.
Now living on the beautiful Gold Coast, Leisa's art focuses on her passions. One is the pristine oceans and beaches of her local area with her ongoing obsession with light and shade, and the other is from her work as a fashion illustrator and portrait artist, which is exploring the human narrative. She is also a children's book illustrator and a surface pattern designer with International collaborations in New Zealand and the United States. Her artworks convey a vibrance of color and a clarity that invite you in and ask you to linger. Her focus for her art is for it to create a feeling of calm, warmth and coziness where it is displayed, a strong belief Leisa has about how our homes might feel to us- a haven.
"I am both blessed and driven by my need to capture a single moment in time and embellish it - either with contrast or color - or both. I think this is why I'm obsessed with painting water- as it changes and moves so quickly in it's play with light. I see the beauty and I have to share it."
As Leisa's years of experience and mastery of techniques build, she is developing her folio with a core subject of ocean and figures but bringing in creative style changes as she challenges herself to keep discovering and experimenting. Leisa also paints with watercolor and oils but finds the speedy drying time of acrylics suits her style, using many layers of color in one single painting and often using watercolor techniques in her acrylic paintings.
Her creative process is started by an experience - surfing or walking on the beach, observing the holidaying beachgoers in the sunshine. Often Leisa sees the finished painting in her head and then just paints it out. Her confidence, she says, comes from lecturing students on composition, color mixing, balance, perspective and contrast for so many years.
" I don't pre-plan or draw much on the canvas...just get right into the underpainting and first layers. I kind of fall into this creative trance and sometimes hours will go by and I'm unaware of the time, and also I'm highly energized when I paint, no matter how early in the morning it gets, I don't want to stop."
Leisa's art career has seen her juggle contract illustration work, user-experience design, professional art services ( including color consultancy) and her fine art and teaching work. She's been flown to France twice in 4 years to teach "En Plein Air" techniques as well as hold her national 5-day Art workshops annually. Starting online video tutorials on her YouTube channel was a natural progression of her teaching and Leisa hopes that this will lead more time for her own painting and commissions. Leisa has been a Finalist in one or more Art Competitions every year since 2013 and hopes to dedicate more time to explore the possibilities of her art.
" I cannot imagine not painting or drawing, doodling or designing some fabric or illustrating a book....with all the joy and positivity I am blessed to have in my life, I know for sure I was put here to be creative and share it- and dance wildly to Justin Timberlake and sing badly whilst dancing and surf pretty badly but with great enthusiasm......and eat lots of dark chocolate. Yep, that's me."