Born London 1955, Lesley Redgate migrated to South Australia in 1967. Lesley attended the SA School of Art Stanley Street 1972 -1976 after which she began her career as artist and educator. Winner of the Thomas Laird Memorial Traveling Art Study Award led her to overseas travel in 1994 and 1997. She is represented in the Victorian National Gallery as recipient of the Michelle Endowment Award. Lesley continues her practice as Visual Artist and is a Senior Lecturer of Graphic Design, TAFE SA.
Lesley draws inspiration from the changing rural and urban landscape. Her paintings reflect a vibrancy and visual harmony often found in the harsh Australian environment. Preoccupied with describing structure and geometry within the landscape, Lesley’s work captures the unusual from ordinary scenes recording the history of the area where she lives.
Preferring to paint plein-air from the rapidly-changing landscape, lesley captures the seasons and light of day. Admiring the work of the Post Impressionists and Australian Modernists, her palette consists mainly of primary and secondary colours, using simultaneous contrast to create subtleties of light as it falls on the form of objects such as hills, rocks, trees and animals. Her subjects consist of scenes from the coastal areas of Port Willunga to the Willunga Hills. The vineyards and wheatfields provide a contrast to the quarries, expressways and fallen sheds. In later years Lesley has tackled portraiture. She was a finalist of the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 2010. Lesley profile as an artist has grown steadily over the years. She has also been two times finalist in the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize & Heysen Art Prize, and 5 times finalist in the Fleurieu Art Prize.
An important part of the process of the completion of Lesley’s work is the framing. Lesley carefully selects the picture moulding, paints the frame and completes the assembly. Often painting the same subject to show the changes in seasons and time, her work is a testament to having lived in the area for 27 years. Lesley’s sense of community is evident in the significant number of exhibitions she has been involved in, on the Fleurieu Peninsula. She has been an invited artist to many Fleurieu Peninsula Art Prize Special exhibitions in 2000, 2002, 2006 & 2008 and Double Vision artist exchange to Bendigo 2006.
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2013
- Last updated:
- 2013
