LANDSCAPES BY LEONE

WELSH AUTUMN LANDSCAPE I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two paintings [34 x 27 cms] picture the breathtaking hues of the Welsh autumn season. The are both oil on canvas and similarly framed. Although they ideally form a pair, they can be bought separately.

Please contact me at : leonespiesstudio@hotmail.co.uk for pricing and further information.

 

WELSH AUTUMN LANDSCAPE II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RECENT ART WORKS BY LEONE 1

 

         ” APPREHENSIVE . . . . “

 This portrait by Leone originated as consequence of her response to an article about the activities of  “Bet Shekoom Haven : House of Restoration for Women and their Children in Crisis, in Port Elizabeth”

She was so touched by the terrible trauma and crises addressed by this voluntary organisation that she titled her art work “Apprehensive . . . ” .

She further grants  her viewers the prerogative of interpreting her subject’s expression and posture . . . .

“Apprehensive . . .” Size 60 x 73 cms,  Acrylic on canvas, Framed. Price: available on request from leonestudio@hotmail.com

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Leone se skildery het sy ontstaan te danke aan haar respons op ‘n artikel oor die aktiwiteite van die “Bet Shekoom Haven : House of Restoration for Women and their Children in Crisis in Port Elizabeth”. Sy was sodanig onder die indruk van die omstandighede en nood wat deur hierdie instansie aangespreek word dat sy haar portretstudie “Apprehensive..” betitel het. Sy laat verder die houding en gesigsuitdrukking van haar onderwerp aan die interpretasie van die aanskouer van haar werk oor.

 

Price: Available on request

Detail from

“Apprehensive . . . .!

 

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“STREET SCENE JEFFREYS BAY “

Leone painted this acrylic on canvass – landscape, viewed from the JB Golf Club.

Size: 66 x 51 cms. Price available on request from  leonestudio@hotmail.co.uk

 

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“KAROO SHEEP FARM AT DUSK”

My family originated from Jansensville and although I was born in Gauteng I spent six of my childhood years in Wellington and have since then acquired many endearing recollections of Wellington as such as well as from holidays with my grand parents and family on the Karoo small towns and farms.

I painted this framed Karoo Landscape (78 x 62 cms) in acrylic on canvass and endeavoured to catch the very special late afternoon atmosphere on a Karoo sheep farm.

Price: R 10 000  SOLD

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” SUNSET IN MOLTENO”

I painted this unframed landscape ( 51 x 51 cms) using similar technique as with the portrait of Ms Hendricks  i.e. oil on wax and experienced great satisfaction in the rich texture variations it afforded.

Molteno Landscape at Sunset

Price: Available on request from leonestudio@hotmail.com

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“LIGHT HOUSE AT CAPE RECEIFE  PE”

Landscape, unframed, acrylic on canvass, 46 x 35 cms.

 

LIGHT HOUSE AT CAPE RECEIFE, PE

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“MALLORCA LANDSCAPE”  –  PALMA  seen from our hotel balcony

PALMA, MALLORCA - FROM OUR HOTEL BALCONY

Although we were overjoyed to be back in South Africa, I took advantage to relive a flash back from our 10 day holiday in Mallorca in 2008. I painted both a scene from our hotel balcony (above)  acrylic on canvass, 30 x 30 cms, as well as a scene in Pa Guerra ( below) acrylic on board (30 x 25 cms)  to celebrate the memories.

STREET CAFE IN PA GUERRA, MALLORCA

Prices: R 1 500 each. SOLD 

ARTIST’S RESUME

Leoné Spies Studio.

Résumé

3 Gwarrie Street, Wave Crest,JeffreysBay

Po Box 635, Jeffreys Bay, 6330, SOUTH AFRICA

tel +27 (0)42 2960996(home)  07911 80758 

e-mail:  leonestudio@hotmail.co.uk 

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Brief History

• Leoné Spies was born in South Africa and holds a Teachers’ Diploma in Art. She read Fine Arts at the University of South Africa and ran her own art school for children and young adults in Pretoria for ten years.
• She launched her exhibition career in Pretoria, South Africa in 1972 by taking part in a New Signatures Exhibition of the Northern Transvaal Arts Association.
• She held many one-man as well as  group exhibitions and her work has been sold from South African  Galleries in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bedfordview, Kaapsche Hoop, Nelspruit, Port Elizabeth, Plettenburg Bay and Knysna. 
• She was invited to exhibit at the MPUMALANGA [Nelspruit] Annual Botanical Garden Exhibitions of 2000 and 2001.
• She moved to LONDON in 2002 from where she continued her painting career. She sold work on private one-man exhibitions in Weymouth, Wimbledon and  Putney. 
• After moving to ABERYSTWYTH in Wales in 2003 she has sold privately, as well as from galleries in Aberystwyth, Bridge Gallery and Aberaeron. She also exhibited regularly from Gallery Cambria Arts in Tregaron.
• She was invited to present an Autumn Exhibition in  ABERYSTWYTH from Oct. to Dec. 2004. (Reviewed in Cambrian News  of 30 Dec’04)
• In Dec. ’05 her graphic entry of “The Old Coliseum” was ‘Highly Recommended’ and displayed in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth by the organisers, Art on the Town group’s ‘Big Draw’ Competition.
• Her last UK Exhibition of 39 pieces (of which 18 were sold) in The Morlan Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales ran from 14 September to 15 October 2009. That was in aid of the cancer charity Beacon of Hope, and part of the exhibition depicted her ongoing fight against and recovery from cancer over the last number of years. These paintings reflected on her creative exploration which as the months passed, became increasingly optimistic and joyous, filled with light and colour.

She and her husband permanently returned to South Africa in December 2009 where she is continuing her painting career from her home in Wave Crest Jeffreys Bay.

South African and International Distinctions  

• In 1988, ‘Wilderness Dunes’ Time Share [on the Garden Route, SA] commissioned her to do twenty watercolours of Western Cape Fauna and Flora. 
• Several of her works were purchased by The Embassy of PERU in 1996 and others were bought by private buyers from France, Holland and Ireland over the following years.  
• Leoné took part in the 1997 Nederburg Knysna Arts Experience, WESTERN CAPE, with an exhibition of 24 works. 
• She was one of 12 winners from 10,000 entries for the 1998 SOUTH AFRICAN BUREAU OF STANDARDS WORLD STANDARDS DAY – PAINTING DESIGN COMPETITION; Her prize being a brand new Ford Fiesta car. 
• She took part in the International WINDSOR & NEWTON WORLD WIDE MILLENNIUM PAINTING COMPETITION in December 1998. 
• During August 1999, four of her works were on display as part of the “Postcards fromSouth Africa” exhibition in the AXIS GALLERY, NEW YORK, from where they were exhibited at the South African Consulate inNew Yorkfor the remainder of September 1999. 
• Leoné is represented in the 2001 Zebra Register of South African Artists & Galleries. 
• Her updated work will soon also be available to be viewed  on: http://www.SouthAfricanArtisits.com

Style

• Much of Leoné’s recent work is based on the love she has developed for the Welsh and Enlish land and seascapes over the last eight years.
• She also focusses on interiors and portrait work, but she mainly explores colour and composition through landscapes and still life studies which enables her to share her life philosophy with her viewers. To her life is vibrantly colourful with inevitable shadows in between, providing the necessary perspective and depth dimensions.
• “I prefer to work in Impressionistic and Fauvian styles rather than the more realistic” – Leoné Spies.
• “Her vibrantly colourful acrylics and oils depict her sensitivity to the playful [as well as serious] interaction between colour, nature, people, movement and herself, as she experiences and influences these elements on her canvas. Her graphic work, especially, carries strong reflective and symbolic elements”. –ArtCritic,PretoriaSouth Africa, 2001.
• “The artist, Leoné Spies, several times exhibited her work in group exhibitions at the State Theatre Art Gallery (Pretoria, South Africa) during the time I was the Curator of that Gallery (i.e. December 1998 to June 2000).Artconnoisseurs as well as the general art lovers’ public frequently reacted most positively towards her works. Personally, I can affirm that the very excellent qualities and standards of her artistic oeuvre contributed much to the overall prestige of the State Theatre Art Gallery. Her forceful expressionistic style and secure colour consciousness, as well as the lyrical impact of her themes, all convey a message of abundant talent, artistic inspiration and imagination. In my opinion, Leoné Spies is a very promising artist who, in a very exciting way, has fulfilled this promise in many of the works she has executed so far.”

     Pieter W van Heerden, Director, Association of Arts Pretoria, 17 August 2001.

• After recently relocating toSouth Africa, Leoné is exploring her unique position of dealing with life‘s similarities and differences after eight years absence from her homeland and reflecting on these ‘changed/similar’ realities through her art.  

 

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                                                leoné’resumé/07/2011

WELCOME TO MY ART STUDIO

Welcome to my Studio cum Gallery, indeed!

My journey and language style

I am passionate about my ability to share a part of what I experience as life’s journey  with any one who would care enough to “stand and stare” a while. 

In my thinking Art manifests in many metaphors. Amongst others as ‘a Mirror’ ,’a Journey’  or ‘a Language’  . . . .  

For instance, some times  my own Art (like Life itself) resembles a mirror, in which various complex experiences of my inner self seem reflected, but again only if you would care to observe.

At times you will observe, my experiences are reflected through the image of a landscape, seascape, still life or portrait. I personally find great freedom in the ability to ‘language’ what I feel or sense inside myself  as response to what I observe or think, by using colour and form, whether this language contains elements of crying, struggling, conversing, rejoicing, amazement or just simple story telling.

To invite you into my studio is in itself a risky endeavour. How ever, to quote Scott Peck: ” To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self – but the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing”.

Most of the time I find myself expressing myself in strong, sure strokes of colour and form after which I sense myself satisfied and spent. At other times I have to pace myself , almost academically working through  form, colour and composition challenges.

Your prerogative

I am hoping therefore that you will be enabled to ‘listen’, ‘hear’ as well as respond to my creative ‘language’. I consider my ever evolving ability and skill ‘to create’ as a gift entrusted by The Creator .

On my journey I have at times found that a viewer might interpret my symbolic language very closely to what I myself might have had in mind when creating my art work. This would be more than I really could expect!  Fortunately, more often than not, I have also experienced that observers would dare to mirror their own and varied views and interpretations of what they believe the ‘hidden message ‘ of my work could be. Invariably this is to my great satisfaction and delight as well as some times admittedly  to my utter amusement.

 ENJOY!