Artists Biography

I was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. My dads side of the family immigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1819, an interesting point of fact. I discovered at a young age my talent in visual arts painting and creating. I worked extraordinarily hard to build my career in the arts, I started working full time at the age of 17. I have a technical diploma in LAN Administration and CSAO Certified. In 2005 I decided to pursue my art career on a full time basis, happiness is a choice not a right. I never looked back. It takes time to create a body of work to show, now years later I've have created several series of work which took on special meaning. In 2008 I began a series of painting of the Dumoine River in Quebec, then in 2009 began working collaboratively with several groups to promote some of my work and in efforts to assist in raising awareness of the Dumoine River, the last undammed wild river in southern Quebec. Upon completion of that series, my ideas broadened I began to look for new ways to grow my career and expand my artistic portfolio. 2012 started as a successful year, then I put my art career on hold to help my dad recover from triple bypass surgery, I thought I could pick up where I left off after my dads recovery but it was not to be. No regrets, I'm glad I was there.

Moving forward...

While painting and creating is natural to me, other things are not. I devoted several years to working on several series of paintings. I thought deeply about my subjects, this gave me a strong connection to what I was painting. Apart form the arts my personal interests are the environment, human rights, women's issues, did you ever wonder why we have to say womens' rights are human rights? This very saying says, some women in 2020 are thought of as less than human, inclusion and rights of people with disabilities ( making sure we know we have rights), technology, world affairs, I have interest in everything basically.

I have work in private, public, corporate, and National collections, including - City Of Ottawa Art Collection, The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and Canadian War Museum.

Major solo exhibits include - Forêt-la-Blanche Ecological Reserve, Ottawa International Airport , and the Canadian Museum of Nature.

My artwork is deeply personal.

Though my artwork I hope to inspire your desire to preserve our landscapes and natural heritage for generations to come.

Time, like most things is required to create truly original pieces of artwork. In 2016 after resettling into a new home I began to restart my art career after 3 years of a hiatus.

This is when the majority of all my artwork was stolen, since then, time, when I have it, is devoted to the retrieval of my stolen work.

I'm a self taught artist. I painted and created because it's what is most natural to me, it made me feel I had contributed in a positive way. A artist, something I don't know how to unbe.

A little family history,

I'm the daughter of LGen ( Retired) Bill Leach CMM CD 1942-2015 and Mary Louise Leach 1945-2003 . He served over 40 years in the Canadian forces, he was a Logistician who 1997 became Chief of Landstaff of the Canadian Forces, making him the only logistician in Canadian History to ever serve as Chief of Landstaff of the Canadian Armed Forces. He retired in the year 2000 at the age of 58. After retirement he transitioned to the Private sector, he then committed himself to volunteerism. He proudly served as Chairman of the board of the Museum of Canadian History until 2015. All to say, he never really retired. My mom was a accomplished artist she inspired me to become an artist and taught me the fundamentals of landscape artistry. In 1999 she founded the Canadian Miniature Society for International artists, she was a professional landscape artist as well as a commissioned artist who chose to represent Military life from the home front. Her work is in National and International collections, including the RCGS, and Canadian War Museum.

In 2016/17 after the theft of my mothers artwork that I owned was stolen along with personal objects that have significant sentimental value including my artwork I find I spend a lot of time trying to address and get administrative accountability for what I feel to be systemic injustice and discrimination.

Some of the stolen work is registered with The Art Loss Register. Someone said to me not long ago, what a honour it would be to be immortalized in artwork with such significants. I thought so too once upon a time, until I started to feel like I was stolen.

Don't forget to visit my other website Tundratheservicedog.com

shelleyleach.com/gallery

Painting by Mary Louise Leach stolen in 2016 in the Outaouais region of Quebec, in fact there are close to 20 works of art that were stole

painting by Mary Louise Leach 2003 stolen in the Outaouais region of Quebec 2016

stolen in the province of Quebec
unfinished work of Niagara Falls

Painting by Mary Louise Leach stolen in 2016 in the Outaouais region of Quebec, in fact there are close to 20 works of art that were stole

painting by Mary Louise Leach 2003 stolen in the Outaouais region of Quebec 2016

stolen in the province of Quebec unfinished work of Niagara Falls

Stolen

RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS:

To obtain information on how to get permission or to use materials from this website email art@shelleyleach.com

( Shelley Leach is my given name, I also own my name, not many people own there name. I do, and the same laws apply to my name)

for use of images licensing fees are to be paid to me directly or can be paid through Access copyright however you need to contact me first, then I will tell you how to do this.

You can visit my other website at tundratheservicedog.com

Designed by Shelley Leach

Canadian Artist Shelley Leach

Artists Biography