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The Red Piano Art Gallery is proud to feature the extraordinary work of painter Leslie Shiels, an artist whose dedication and innovative approach to oil painting have earned her a prominent place in the art world. Born in Ohio in 1950, Shiels graduated with a BFA in 1974 from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning. Over the decades, her work has captivated audiences in galleries, museums, and civic art venues across the United States, Bermuda, and France. Her paintings are cherished in private collections and institutions, including the Masur Museum of Art, the Alexandria Museum of Art, the Masterworks Museum on Bermuda, and the Customs House Museum. With her work gracing corporate spaces like Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and The Mercy Hospital Group, Shiels exemplifies the power of art to inspire in diverse settings.
Leslie Shiels approaches her craft with a profound sense of discipline and exploration. Her medium of choice is oil paint, applied to oil-primed linen, which she calls her “substrate of choice.” Shiels describes her process as both a discipline and a gift, maintaining a daily practice that allows her to uncover the unexpected through perseverance. Mistakes, accidents, and “ghosts” left behind from scraped layers become the foundation for new possibilities, adding depth and dimension to her work. Her process draws parallels to jazz music and improvisational acting, where mastery of fundamentals opens the door to spontaneous creativity. As Shiels herself notes, “Creativity is a muscle that requires exercise for fitness, and I just happen to paint.”
What sets Leslie Shiels apart is her willingness to delve deeply into questions and themes that resonate personally and universally. She works in series, often starting with a single question or idea inspired by novels, current events, or everyday conversations. These concepts shape her compositions, often exploring themes of human connection, ignorance, and the parallels between social structures in humans and animals. Her imagery is rich and thought-provoking, often using a dog as a recurring symbol to explore pack dynamics and relationships. This intellectual foundation gives her work layers of meaning that invite viewers to reflect, engage, and find their own interpretations.
Leslie Shiels’s paintings are a testament to the transformative power of art and the discipline of creativity. Her work has not only been featured in prestigious publications like Artist Magazine but has also appeared on the set of ABC’s Nashville, a testament to its broad appeal. From her studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, to her workspace in downtown Aiken, South Carolina, Shiels continues to create, innovate, and inspire. At The Red Piano Art Gallery, we celebrate her extraordinary contributions to the art world and invite you to experience her paintings firsthand—a unique opportunity to engage with the work of an artist who embodies the essence of thoughtful, purposeful creativity.