About the artist
Leslie Brownstein
Figurative painter working in oils and ink, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Artist biography
Leslie Permuter Brownstein
- Practice
- Painting & drawing
- Works in
- Oils and ink
- Education
- BFA, Kansas City Art Institute
- Based in
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Commissions
- By enquiry
I’m Leslie Permuter Brownstein, and I’ve been an artist my entire life.
I earned my BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, where I began my studies in 1971. I began my career in ceramics, and for the past 25 years I’ve worked in painting and drawing, primarily in oils and ink.
The focus of my work is figurative, with influences of my standard poodle, Blanche.
I live in St. Louis, Missouri, with my husband of 52 years, Mark. We raised three children and now have six grandchildren, five of whom live in St. Louis.
Artistic philosophy
Three things the paintings insist on.
Colour is the subject.
Not decoration and not mood. A red cloth or a yellow chair is chosen the way a writer chooses a verb: because nothing else will do the job.
Line carries the feeling.
In the drawings, one unbroken line has to hold a whole body or a whole room. There is nowhere to hide, and that is the point.
Pattern keeps things slightly off balance.
Cow print, stripes and flowers push against the calm of a table or a chair. A picture that is too settled goes quiet.
Creative process
From first mark to last coat.
A general outline of how a painting comes together. Replace with the real routine.
Draw first.
Pictures begin in line, on paper, where a figure or a table can be found quickly and moved around until the arrangement holds.
Mix the exact colour.
Every colour is mixed for the painting it belongs to and tested against its neighbours before it reaches the canvas.
Build it in layers.
Colour goes down in layers, pattern is laid over it, and the dark outline comes last to pull everything into place.
Inspiration
Looking at everything.
A table laid for no one in particular. Printed fabric, a favourite chair, the way a dog sleeps. Modern painters who let colour and pattern run the room.
- Still life
- The figure
- Printed fabric
- Interiors
- Dogs
Artist statement
I want a painting to keep moving after you have looked away. If it stays with you on the walk home, it worked.
Leslie Brownstein
Selected work
See it on the wall.
Take one home.
Browse the available paintings and drawings, or write to the studio about a piece you have in mind.