Lesley Anne Spowart "Looking at the Moon" Acrylic Collage on Board, Framed Abstract in Mint Green, Carmel California Art, Statement Artwork, 2024

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In this framed abstract in acrylic collage on board by Lesley Anne Spowart, a round orange moon hangs above a … Read more In this framed abstract in acrylic collage on board by Lesley Anne Spowart, a round orange moon hangs above a mint-green ground scored with fine vertical and crossing lines, like a fence or a ladder seen through haze. Dark maroon swells into a heart at the lower right, a pink panel marked with pale circles sits beside it, and a block of red anchors the lower left. Between them, flecks of red, yellow and white scatter like blossoms. Spowart collages, sands and scrapes, so edges stay soft and surfaces uneven and each color seems to rise from the one beneath. The palette is playful, but the navy at the upper left keeps a little night sky in the corner.

Warm color on a cool ground makes this an easy fit for a bedroom, a dressing area or a kitchen nook. The mint and coral work with white walls, pale wood and rattan, and the orange moon picks up terracotta and brass. The black frame sharpens the palette and suits a gallery wall of mixed sizes, or a quiet spot near a lamp where warm light can reach it.

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

Lesley Anne Spowart combines acrylic paint with collaged paper on board, pressing pieces into the wet surface and working over them until paper and paint read as one skin. She sands, scrapes and scratches back through the layers, and her wider practice draws on printmaking, photographic xerography, beeswax and tar. She works in a Monterey studio housed in a retired wine cellar.

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