About the Artist

Kellie Leigh, PhD

Kellie's work is focused on the natural environment, mainly in Australia and Africa.
She completed qualifications in commercial art and then worked as a graphic designer as her first career step, but 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 http://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. A recent road trip to the Australian Outback and Lake Eyre is apparent in some of the works that were on show at her recent exhibition, Vanishing Point, at the Australian Museum in October 2009.

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.

My artwork focuses on one species at a time, rather than a typical scence with a diversity of brids and animals. I try to capture an easily digestible taste of an ecosystem, to explore one valuable component at a time and emphasise its uniqueness and character. At the same time my style mirrors the fragmentation and vulnerability that many species currently face, they are no longer properly connected to the life-support system and I often portray them out in a vast and formless landscape.

It's not dark doomsday work though, I'm all for art that inspires people. The power of simple beauty and a positive response to it can't be overestimated for encouraging a dialogue between people and our environment. Particularly when most of us still seek out some aspect of the natural world to rejuvenate ourselves, whether it's through a tropical beach holiday, a hike through a national park, or just sitting in a garden. Realistically it's those meaningful personal connections that put a perceived value on nature and can motivate a sense of responsbility and conservation action. So my work aims to capture those magical snapshots of nature that we all instinctively respond to."