Lesley Anne Spowart "Parkour Dreams" Acrylic on Board, Small Framed Dog Portrait in Mustard Yellow, Carmel California Art, Statement Artwork, 2024

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In this small framed dog portrait in acrylic on board by Lesley Anne Spowart, a dog in profile, its coat … Read more In this small framed dog portrait in acrylic on board by Lesley Anne Spowart, a dog in profile, its coat a smoky blend of plum, rust and slate, gazes to the right with a single yellow-rimmed eye. Mustard-gold shapes step through the board like a staircase or a maze, edged in turquoise, and a rectangle of rust and cream carries a pattern of small repeated rings that looks printed into the surface. A bright yellow line traces the ear and collar, and a red stripe closes the right edge. Spowart's practice includes printmaking and photographic xerography, and the mottled coat has the layered, rubbed-back depth of a surface worked, sanded and worked again.

Calm and a little mischievous, it suits a hallway, a mudroom, a den or a bedroom. The mustard and turquoise sit well with walnut, cognac leather and soft gray walls, and the dark frame helps it hold its own above a dresser or beside a window. It is a natural companion in a home with a dog, and it also reads as a quiet portrait within a gallery wall of small pieces.

Acrylic on board, 12 x 12 x 1 in (30.5 x 30.5 x 2.5 cm). Framed in black.

Lesley Anne Spowart is a colorist who works mainly on paper or board, drawn to the resistance the support gives back. She builds layers of acrylic, then sands, scrapes and scratches through them so that one color surfaces from the one beneath. Her wider practice also draws on printmaking, photographic xerography, beeswax and tar, and she works in a studio set in a retired wine cellar in Monterey, California.

Lesley Anne Spowart grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and earned a B.A. in Art History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, before graduate study at UC Davis, UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton, where she studied museum practice and exhibition design. As a student she helped install works by artists including Sol LeWitt, Beatrice Wood and Viola Frey. She lives in Monterey, California, where she and her husband raised three children.

A self-described colorist, she works in beeswax, tar, photographic xerography, acrylic and collage, painting abstractions, landscapes and animals in a studio set in a retired wine cellar. She has exhibited widely on the Monterey Peninsula and nationally, including at the Monterey Museum of Art, and her work is held in collections including Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. She was voted Best Local Artist by the Monterey County Weekly in 2010. See less