I have loved making art since I was a small child and one of my favourite earliest memories is of sitting with my mum at the kitchen table where we would both draw on scraps of card and the backs of envelopes.
I gained a BA (Hons) in Industrial Design (Textiles) at The Scottish College of Textiles (Heriot-Watt School of Textiles & Design), where I was able to develop my visual studies into woven cloth, and textiles are influential to me in my art, with colour, pattern and textural elements coming through in my paintings.
My art captures the feelings I get from a moment in time and place and my emotional attachment to the settings I paint. Watching that burdened cloud approaching; seeing the sunlight dappling the autumn leaves; observing the patterns of the view and sensing the colours, smells and sounds around me - this all evokes beauty and compels me to hold on to it. My memories are also a driving force of my art as I am often drawn to paint a place because it reminds me of who I have been there with, and I think of them, what they would say, what they mean to me, and my life becomes part of my art.
I enjoy using a wide range of different media and exploring the medium that I feel is best for the image I want to create, in a process that evolves from my heart to my head to my hand. I may pick up materials from the place I am in at that moment - a chalky stone or a piece of burnt wood and use them instantly to capture a scene - or I may feel that acrylic paints and pens, paint sticks, charcoal, pen and coloured pencil will enable me to create the texture and layers that I seek. A lot of my work is on a black background, where colours can intensify as they are applied.
CONTACT LESLEY
Email: l.mieras17@gmail.com
