Lesley Kuhn does not live in Quesnel, but her exhibition of paintings is called Home because it inspires those connections in the viewer, since it comes from her own authentic connection to what that word means.
“The premise for the show is looking for and appreciating the beauty that surrounds us,” Kuhn told The Observer. “All but three of the paintings were taken from my neighbourhood, less than four kilometres from our home, Bednesti Lake. Two are from a small island, Papay Westray, Orkney, Scotland where my grandfather was born - Papay Lights and Through the Wet Windshield - and the third is from my daughter’s home garden: Red Cabbage. The rest are when we are cross-country skiing, or hiking, or just on our property. This was a great exercise is stopping intentionally to capture specific moments of outstanding beauty that all of us are fortunate enough to have on our doorstep.”
All of this body of work is in oil on either canvas or board and created in the past year.
“I am fascinated with capturing light and shadow and have been working on improving that area in my work,” she said.
Her public affirmations are growing. She is a member of the recently formed group of northern B.C. artists calling their collective Joined By The Brush, which just had their inaugural show at Groop Gallery in Prince George in early March. Now she gets a solo show at the Quesnel Art Gallery that opened last week and is on until May 12.
“The Quesnel Art Gallery is such a great place, welcoming emerging artists and providing a platform for us to be able to share our work,” she said. This is her second show at the QAG, the first being in 2021.