CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Leah Thiessen

Leah Thiessen’s abstract, highly layered images are created in direct response to bush, beaches and mangroves that surround her home and studio on the edge of the Terranora Broadwater in Northern NSW. Exploring the living energy of nature, Thiessen’s work draws upon the biodiversity of the bush and mangroves that line the water’s edge and reflect the the raw energy and liveliness of a space and place.

‘My work taps into the emotional gravity of a place, its memory, its pulse, its rawness and power. For me the paintings communicate a deep felt relationship with the earth, embodying a spirit of place and its atmosphere. The images are a direct emotional response to the bush, beaches and mangroves that surround my home. My paintings explore unique ways of capturing the diversity of the natural terrain. I am interested in local flora, protected plant species, seaweeds and noxious plants. I often start my paintings with the small delicate details found in the bush and then depart to a place of frantic energy.’
Leah Thiessen, Artist Statement

'Abstraction serves as an essential mode of discovery of both her immediate exterior and interior psychological terrain. She professes that painting is her most difficult reckoning, the place where she works hardest on equilibrium (both its creation and rupture). This deep work results in surfaces that vibrate in a way that is at once feverish and soothing. Over a single piece, Thiessen finds new contexts and her brushstrokes continue in ungoverned pathways. Ultimately, there is always a place where the eyes can rest amidst the dance.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by by Emma O'Neill 2021

READ: Leah Thiessen artist interview with UK art consultant Cornah Willis

ARTIST PROFILE:
Leah Thiessen has been exhibiting nationally since 2010. In 2023 she was listed in the Top 100 Collectable Artists (top100artists.com). She has been a finalist in the Lethbridge Landscape Art Prize (2024, 2022), the Omnia Art Prize (2024), the Calleen Art Award (2022, 2019, 2016, 2015), the Muswellbrook Art Prize (2021), the John Leslie Prize (2020, 2018, 2016), the Glover Prize (2020), the John Villiers Art Prize for Small Works (2020), the Clayton UTZ Art Award (2019), the Gosford Art Prize (2019), and the Paddington Art Award (2016) among others. She has exhibited nationwide since 2010. Her work is held in the Arthur & Suzie Roe Collection.