Kellie Leigh, PhD

Kellie's work is focused on the natural environment, mainly in Australia and Africa. Aerial perspectives are a growing focus in her work, which utilise the subject's spatial relationship with its environment to extract dynamic compositions. A parallel theme is the exploration of repetitive patterns and textural motifs found in different views of landscapes, while exaggerated space and colour are used to suggest context in wildlife portraits.

Kellie completed qualifications in commercial art and then worked as a graphic designer as her first career step.  Her inspiration has always come from the bush, so she soon moved from the commercial world into environmental biology where she could pursue a career that contributed to conserving nature, as well as placing her in the ideal environment to explore and develop her art.

A brief trip to Africa in 1997 turned into ten years in Zambia, where Kellie founded a long-term conservation and research organisation (AWDC; see website www.awdczambia.org) and gained a PhD in conservation biology from the University of Sydney.

Alongside full-time conservation work, Kellie has held highly successful solo exhibitions in Sydney, completed several painting commissions each year and her work hangs in private collections internationally. Since returning home she is now catching up on painting "years of inspiration" and also enjoying the much missed inspiration of the Australian bush.

Artist's Statement

“Science and art come from the same roots, they are both about focused observation and recording. With biology you record, analyse and interpret but through a carefully rationalised process. With art the observation is just as intense but you have the freedom to interpret through your personal perceptions and to communicate the way your subject has inspired you. I think both art and science have an important place in communicating the beauty and value of our environment. In my painting I strive to invoke an understanding of the impact of the subject, its essence or character, and I love the process of trying to achieve that.”