“Leslie Shiels grew up in Cincinnati and has been painting for most of her life. She received her training from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning. She earned a BFA from the University in 1974. She has exhibited her work in galleries and museums throughout the United States. Her work has become a part of numerous corporate and private collections, most of which are located in Cincinnati. Art critics have described her paintings as lush, powerful, and skillful works of art.

My path to a painting begins with a personal concern, a thought inspired by a novel, a news story or a conversation boiled down to a single question or declaration. Previous statements and questions have included,” What tangible speaks of you?”, “Ignorance is the greatest common enemy.”, as well as “First and third world peoples are more similar than dissimilar.” and “Human social structure has much in common with animals that work as a pack.” When I start it is with a fertilized concept but not necessarily with the vision of a specific outcome. I let it ‘be’ what it ‘is’. I believe in allowing for opportunistic success that comes through purposeful discipline. If, at the end of a day, I don’t see potential in what I ‘have so far’, I use a wallpaper scraper, drag off the paint and leave. I start over. As my friend Frank says,” It’s not life or death, it’s only a painting.”I don’t make sketches, preliminary drawings, templates, models, etc. I might paint a study I believe could stand on its own. I paint.”