Lucia deLeiris’ love of art began during early childhood. She would go on painting excursions to do watercolors of the Rhode Island seashore herparents, both avid painters. Some days, she would spend the day sketching animals at the zoo with her father. “We both filled folders full of zoo drawings, and I learned so much in the process about drawing animals, and how to work with moving subjects. It was challenging, but so much fun!” she recalls. deLeiris comes from four generations of painters, and grew up in a house full of paintings and art books. Her French grandmother worked as a professional portrait painter both in France and New England. deLeiris remembers watching her grandmother paint. “I was aways drawn to drawing and painting.” she recalls. “I’m lucky that my family was supportive of my interest in art.”
Part of her artistic development came from working at a bird sanctuary during high school summers. There, she painted displays for the museum, cared for young or wounded animals, and learned bird banding. During her last summer there she was prompted to illustrate a trail guide. “It was a revelation to me to see my artwork in a book.” she notes. “I had always illustrated my school book reports, and scribbled drawings in my school notes, but I had never before thought about working as an artist.”
Later, while attending the University of Maryland where she studied zoology, she took some chopped up photocopies of the trail guide drawings in a manila folder (her first attempt at a portfolio), and walked into the office of the National Parks and Conservation Association in Washington, DC. There she picked up an illustration job drawing grizzly bears for their magazine. That prompted further illustration jobs for several natural history magazines in the DC area.
Her career took off upon graduating from University, when she was granted a residency at the Smithsonian National Zoo Conservation Center in Front Royal Virginia. She lived there six months sketching and observing Père David Deer from a jeep for a scientific study, and then illustrating the resulting book. Living among the semi captive animals, she was able to combine her interests in art and biology. When a documentary film crew arrived, she did a painting of golden lion marmosets for the film introduction. Of sketching in their enclosure, she remembers, “One of the tiny monkeys climbed down my arm while I was drawing, to play with my pencil eraser!”
Early in her career, deLeiris earned her pilot license (by working one summer at a rental desk of small airport in exchange for flight hours), she flew an antique airplane for six years on painting excursions. She made a living during those years by painting watercolors the waterfront towns of the east coast, and making a series of 35 prints which she sold through local galleries. She flew from Maine to Miami and to islands off the coast with her French easel and folding bike behind the seat. From some small airstrips, once landed, she would pedal off to paint the local waterfront.
After working with drawing media and watercolor, deLeiris took up oil painting. She appreciates its workability as well as the sculptural qualities of the brushstrokes. She devised a lightweight set up, that could be easily carried, and participated in juried plein air festivals around the country, enjoying the challenge of painting oil in varying landscapes.
After college, she continued to learn and further develop her style, taking workshops with several artists. With advice from prominent marine artist, Don Demers, she honed her ability to convey luminosity and atmosphere. Studying with the two world renowned watercolorists, Tom Schaller, and Eudes Correia, influenced how she handles watercolor, and both in figures and animals. When asked about influences from the old masters, she notes Homer and John Singer Sargent, whose conveyance of mood, and skillful use of the brush have been an ongoing inspiration.
World travel expanded her scope of subjects. The most life changing experience was when she was granted a residency at a science station in Antarctica for four months. There, she illustrated the book, “Natural History of the Antarctic Peninsula,” (Moss) and painted landscapes and wildlife. “I would take a small inflatable zodiac through the floating sea ice to one of the small islands and spend the day sketching penguins, cormorants, skuas, and elephant seals. With no land based predators, the nesting birds accepted my presence. It was just heavenly!”
In the following years, she was awarded two more Antarctic residencies. One involved living in a fish hut on the frozen ocean. she recalls, ”In the middle of the night I would awake hearing the calls of seals swimming underneath me… surprised, in my drowsy state, that my hut was not sitting on terra firma!” From that remote field camp on the sea ice, she explored and painted in the light cast by the low sun that circled the southern sky as the spring season progressed.
As soon as it had warmed to minus 20º Fahrenheit, animals began to appear on the barren sea ice. Through layers of thick gloves, she sketched the emperor penguins that waddled in one evening from the open ocean to mingle at the camp for four hours. She sketched the weddell seals as they emerged from cracks in the sea ice to give birth to wet pups on the sea ice. Observing the progression Antarctic spring for two exciting months at the field camp, she produced drawings, pastels and took notes as reference for later studio paintings.
From her book collaborations and solo exhibitions that resulted, deLeiris was awarded the Antarctic Service Medal presented on behalf of the National Science Foundation 2005.
Many of the paintings sold through galleries, solo exhibitions at Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, at the Harvard Museum in Cambridge, MA, at Newport Art Museum in RI, and other venues. She now sells paintings through several galleries including Argosy Gallery in Maine, Sloane Merril Gallery in Boston, and Sheldon Fine Art, and Arnold Gallery in Rhode Island.
Another artistic exploration in her life involved two extended stays in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park in Tanzania, where wild chimpanzees have been the focus of primatologist, Jane Goodall’s long term study. In Boston, deLeiris met her childhood hero, whose work she had followed for many years. Invited to stay at Goodall’s primitive house on Lake Tanganyika, with an oil lamp for light, no running water, and visits of baboons and chimps on the front porch, she went on forest forays to observe and sketch the wild chimpanzees. This extended focus in exploring this African forest, doing watercolors and sketching the chimps, vines, insects, palm trees, and birds, combined all her passions: painting, field drawing, travel, and exploration of a natural environment.
deLeiris has traveled widely with her sketch journal and paints. She is moved by the variety and richness of landscapes and cultures around the world. Capturing visual images, she camped several days in a jungle hammock on the Amazon River bank, camped in Micronesia, sketched throughout South America, Fiji, Japan, Greenland, Svalbard, and Europe. She had several positions as artist in residence of small cruising ships, as speaker, and art workshop teacher. She painted and exhibited on board along the west coast of Africa, Antarctica and the arctic, and is the author of the book, “Voyage to the North Pole,” an illustrated journal of one cruise.
During several cruises to the geographic North Pole, she had a chance to paint on the Russian Islands of Franz Josef Land. There she discovered a love of painting the wildflowers growing on the Arctic tundra, spots of delicate color in a barren landscape. After several of these fleeting visits, she returned to the Arctic on her own to spend several weeks at a time, painting the tundra flowers. Of her stays in Greenland and in Svalbard, she notes, “Exploring the tundra with my watercolors was a delight,” she notes. “I could observe the plants up close, watching for the various pollinators, contemplating the various ways these plants adapted to their harsh environment, and painting their delicate forms, while exploring the tundra.”
When not on the road, deLeiris’ works outdoors on location and in her studio in the Boston area and in Rhode Island. Recent work in her native New England reveals much about her life and passions. Sometimes she goes out to capture the Old World feeling of the quaint streets of Boston. She is drawn to pastoral settings of local farms, and expansive seascapes.
deLeiris’ sensitive balance of color reveals the beauty she sees around her. Her paintings invite the viewer to find a respite in a world often filled with the bustle of day to day activities.
Venturing out throughout the year to capture the light of each season can be a challenge. Sometimes high winds interfere, but when the wind is calm, bundling up in winter presents the opportunity to capture the pristine beauty of snowy landscapes. Her experience in Antarctica has facilitated that process.
During other seasons, farm scenes with grazing animals, landscapes, seascapes with seabirds reflected at low tide, all express the beauty of the natural settings.
These days, deLeiris still finds places that speak to her heart, far from the bustle of daily life. She notes, “I hope my paintings convey the sense of joy and peace I feel while painting.
