Lesley Vance. 

Lesley Vance, Untitled (12), 2009
Oil on linen, 18 x 15 in. (45.7 x 38.1 cm)

 Painter, Leslie Vance creates gorgeous, tiny oil paintings on linen. Vance’s process involves painstakingly arranging still life objects, photographing them and then using the resulting image as the basis for paintings. The combination of the lack of brush strokes (Vance applies paint with a pallet knife) and the relatively untextured surface of linen give the paintings a beautiful, sensual smoothness. Inspired by the Spanish still life tradition, this influence can be seen in her luminous color palette. Lance spreads beautiful, jewel-like colors across a dark background and her paintings seem to radiate with an inner light. Their fluidity, depth and intermixing of color also bring to mind Gerhardt Richter’s masterful abstractions.

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I love Lesley Vances' paintings. They are very aesthetically pleasing. I find it really interesting how she paints from still life, yet you can't really make out what it is that she is looking at. I really like how you can just enjoy the shapes for what they are rather than thinking "Oh thats a banana" or whatever. This is something that I aspire to do in my paintings.