Intuitive & Intelligent - Art is the Teacher - Artist Profile, Leanne Adams

I have been a visual communicator most of my working life – graphic design, advertising agencies, media, public relations, event management, sales and a demanding decade of international brand management and product launches taught me to ‘listen to and through’ what people were saying. To capture the true spirit of the story, to design and align thoughts, ideas and strategies, to convey the right messages and present those messages with conviction. It was all pivotal to achieving the results needed. It taught me a lot. But the need to paint was always there quietly waiting.

Leanne Adams - Artist

How it started

My self-led initiation was in a cold, damp boat shed on a 10-acre block in Rotorua in the middle of winter. I had six brushes, a few tubes of paint, a table built out of an old door, a mat to stand on, layers and layers of clothes and a large 1.4m canvas. The Navigator came into being. The sheds changed shape and location over the years, including a few in Northern NSW.  The current shed is in Whitianga, the toolkit has expanded, the lessons have morphed from teaching myself to teaching others, running workshops, paint and sip events and carefully selected private coaching.
 
Twenty-three years of ‘practise’ and I now know this.  ART is one of the most powerful teachers of integrity I have experienced. The connection, the concentration, the capacity for change, the resilience to keep turning up is beyond most regular day jobs. It takes courage to presence the imagery, information and learnings IT wants to share. It takes compassion to stand in front of people who want you to discount your work, even though you have invested hundreds, thousands of hours learning your craft. It’s just you and your brushes or palette knife. Every piece speaks and teaches what it wants to say.  My job is to listen, to interpret and to presence that content so you can ‘see’ it.

Creating an Abstract

Abstracts begin with charcoal or inks, making marks and activating the canvas. Direction for the piece – emerges as I go. It builds its own voice, creates its own story, through the feelings and ideas that are generated in the flow state. Traditional rules apply – composition, colour, technique with experimentation. ‘What if’ becomes the mantra. Realistic pieces are completely different. A simple 4 step process - good quality reference material, start with the big picture, break it down, build it up. PROCESS.

More than just to look at 

On a professional level - art develops competencies.  Skills of visual thinking, exploration and discovery.  We learn to embrace complexity, enhance problem solving. To see beyond the obvious, reimagining situations, approaching problems from different perspectives and exploring both intuitive and intellectual dimension to create better or different outcomes. We explore how to express visually what the conscious mind cannot conceive.  We gain insight through reflection and analysis, planning the next steps forward, building confidence in our choices and decision making.  We explore ideas with or without preconceived plans, leading ourselves in new directions, finding unseen opportunities to expand and grow.  We gather knowledge of self, skills and satisfaction by blending the intuitive and intelligence needed to move from blank canvas to the finished result.

June Art Expo

Leanne's pieces available for the Art Expo weekend will be a hand-picked selection of work in progress in the shed, a little bit of abstract, a few softer realistic pieces.  She will be on site at the Expo each day between 10am and 2pm or by appointment.