Lesley Slight
Lesley Slight studied painting at Nottingham College of Art and textiles at Leicester College of Art, follwed by a successful career in accessory design when her work was aquired by national collections (including the Victoria & Albert Museum). In the ‘90s she returned exclusively to painting, showing at Leighton House Gallery and at venues in the South West.
‘The landscape of West Dorset is the visual foundation of Lesley Slight’s painting. Her work grows from meticulous observations, her complete immersion in the place she paints. But these are invented landscapes, incorporating real and imagined elements; visions from knowledge, experience, imaginings, memory.
Distinct areas of colour or shadow belie the complex compositions; rhythm and pattern guide the eye unfalteringly and the result, even when the painting is small, is always monumental. In general she uses a low colour key, holding something back for the shift or burst of light, light which orchestrates the narrative. Light touches a hillside, a furrow, the crest of a wave, a bush, a leaf - a fleeting moment, but here minutes and seconds explode, because this is a moment you will not forget.
But a beautiful moment often hold its nemesis. The shadows in these paintings can be ominous, like a warning that our past endeavours to control dictate an uncertain future. Slight paints intuitively and so suggests that mastery of anything does not lie in control. She describes the calm but also the brewing storm. Like flesh, these paintings have a pulse, ignore it at your peril.
Slight’s paintings are thoughtful, subtle and powerful and achingly poignant. I am thinking about a small painting of a tree in leaf; it speaks clearly in the fading light, immutable, defiant and full of heart. Lesley Slight’s interior world is as real as the place that she paints.’
Gigi Sudbury, May 2011
 Evening Path |
 Land & Sea |
 Silver Path |
 Oak Study |
 Placid Empire |
 Red Tree |
 North West |
 South West |
 Lesley Slight in her studio |