Artists Biography

I was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. My dads side of the family immigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1819 .That means this year 2019 my family has lived in Canada for 200 years. Anyway, I was raised with strong values having always had artistic influence in my life. My education began living overseas. 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 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 independently 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 after some painting excursions Ontario Tourism offered to help with some promotion of some of my work and collaborative partnerships, however in 2012 family took priority and I put my art career on the back burner to help my dad recover from triple bypass surgery, and lost that opportunity. Although a video of my experience I recorded was presented at the Toronto outdoor adventure show in 2013, I hear it was well received.

Moving forward...

While painting and creating is natural to me, other things are not. I don't draw and seldom paint plein air. Sometimes I may do a quick sketch on the canvas, like the horizon line or where the landmark features of my painting will go then I just start painting although I have probably put several weeks of intellectual thought into what I am putting to canvas. Most of my work has some element of water. 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.

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.

Happiness is a choice not a right, creating art made me happy.

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 most of my time, when I have it, is devoted to the retrieval of my work that was stolen and raising awareness of the toll art theft has on our society. How would we remember if not for art. The first photograph was published in 1826 and strides were made into 1871. How we've evolved.

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. Why do a degree in art history if there is no art to keep record of are you going to spend your money to do a degree in fine arts if what you create means nothing. Is it only the tragic sad story of the artist that sells, if that's the way it is, if so I don't want to be a artist, the people who stole my livelihood. My art was about beauty and conservation not criminals and vengence.

Artwork evokes emotions, and those emotions are completely individual.

I never thought it was about how you paint, I thought it was about - did you paint something that made a mark and is important to our identity, will that picture/painting still be important in 150 years or 1000 years. Hopefully, only time will tell.

Where I came from; My genes...

My dad was – LGen ( Retired) Bill Leach CMM CD 1942-2015. He served over 40 years in the Canadian forces, he was a Logistician who in 1997 became Chief of Landstaff of the Canadian Forces, he retired in the year 2000 at the age of 58. During and after retirement from the Private sector he committed himself to "volunteerism". He proudly served as Chairman of the board of the Museum of Canadian History until 2015. My mom was – Mary Louise Leach 1945-2003 she was a accomplished artist she inspired me to become an artist. In 1999 she founded the Canadian Miniature Society for International artists, she was 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 most of my artwork and my mothers artwork that I owned was stolen along with personal objects that have significant sentimental value.

Like the top of the desk my mother gave me before she died. She called it a gift of love. I'm sure the motive for the theft was more about ruining my life than the monetary value of some of the objects. To say the least, it left me feeling devastated, quite literally its like a grief, a loss I could never fully articulate, it was all reported to the police. Some of the stolen work is registered with The Art Loss Register. Don't forget to visit my other website designed by me Tundratheservicedog.com

STOLEN PAINTING 2016 © Mary Leach stolen in Renfrew County 2016/17

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 PAINTING 2016 © Mary Leach stolen in Renfrew County 2016/17

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 this is done.

I sell quality reproductions of my artwork you can email me at the email address above.

You can visit our other website at tundratheservicedog.com

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Canadian Artist Shelley Leach

Artists Biography