“As an artist, it is important to me to feel a deep emotional connection to my subject, to physically inhabit a landscape to draw and paint it.

I begin en plein air with colour as my starting point, while my sketching informs line and composition even if, in the end, only a trace of those formal elements will remain in the work.  Back in my studio I use my sketches as the framework for each piece, but the colours become bolder and more playful, more childlike. It is a poetic, romantic, idealised world that I am trying to create on canvas, a world that connects to childhood memories of places and people.

I feel the beauty of my subject and I use layers of colour to express that depth. My finished paintings are simple in a deliberate way, with an essential naivety. A work may respond to Cornwall’s Prussia Cove, may be like Prussia Cove, but not quite. My practice draws on a kind of Magical Realism inspired by the landscapes and literary stories that ignite my imagination: things that couldn’t possibly happen, happen.

I want my paintings to create dreamlike places full of wonder that viewers can inhabit.”

Lesley-Ann Eaton, 2025

Biography

Lesley-Ann Eaton studied Fine Art at Falmouth University and went on to work in the creative education departments of Newlyn Art Gallery, Falmouth University, South London Gallery, and The Royal Opera London. She has been awarded grants by the Arts Council to work as an artist in residence with street children in Mumbai, India; by WOMAD to deliver children's workshops at the festival both in England and internationally; and by the Artist Heritage Service Northern Ireland to create and deliver children's art workshops at key heritage sites. From 2022 to 2023 she studied Studio Practice at Newlyn School of Art, and in 2024 she graduated from the school’s highly respected One Year Professional Landscape Programme, with a joint graduation exhibition at Tremenheere Gallery, Penzance.

Lesley-Ann is represented by Aisling Gallery, West Cork, Ireland, and The Square Gallery, St Mawes, Cornwall.