Membership Meeting –June 13–Lesley Riley

Artwork by Lesley Riley
Lesley Riley shared her inspirations with the VAS members at our June Meeting.

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On Thursday, June 13 at 7:30pm at the Art Center, please join VAS members at the final meeting of the fiscal year.  A full slate of officers was accepted by your board for the vote of the membership.  Please come and support your fellow members who are assuming leadership for the next year.

This beautiful presentation with Lesley Riley showing us her beautiful multimedia artwork will quickly follow.

Lesley took time to write this description for us describing her presentation:

“Inspiration literally falls at my feet in the form of leaves.” Lesley combines the 150 year old cyanotype process with a little water (wet cyanotype) and modern digital technology to enhance and be witness to the inherent beauty of leaves. Lesley Riley’s recent body of artwork began  three years ago when she moved from the city to a mountain forest. Her eyes and heart were opened to a new, deeper and more meaningful form of creative expression.
There’s a difference between looking and seeing – a quick glance vs. a careful study. To see is to use all of your senses to explore and understand what you are looking at. Through her Modern Botanicals, Lesley explores the potential of leaves to demand a closer look, to go beyond the obvious, to draw you in and tell a story. Lesley will tell her story, explain her process and ‘wow you’ with color in this delightfully visual presentation.”


Artist’s Biography–Lesley Riley is an internationally known instructor and multi-media artist, working in paint, botanical printing, mixed and digital media. In 1999 she turned her initial passion for photos, color and the written word into a dream occupassion that continues to delight and inspire creatives and art lovers everywhere. A quilter since 1971, Lesley has an extensive background in using color and pattern to create innovative art quilts and fabric collage.

Her art and articles have appeared in many publications, including her seven craft books. As former Contributing Editor of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, and host of BlogTalk Radio’s Art & Soul podcast, she developed a passion for finding and showcasing talented artists and their creative lives. Lesley has also been a guest on several episodes of Quilting Arts TV and profiled on The Quilt Show and is an educator for Golden Artist Colors.

Lesley’s current work, based on original cyanotypes (sunprints), explores her love of nature and the potential of leaves to demand a closer look, to go beyond the obvious, to draw you in and tell a story. She creates her botanical patterns by first starting with original cyanotype prints, which become the bones for subsequent digital layers of pattern and color.

Inspiration literally falls at her feet and creativity abounds in an empty nest she shares with her high-school sweetheart husband on a mountaintop in Cascade, MD. You’ll find Lesley in her indoor and outdoor studio from sunup to sundown unless, of course, any of her six children or 11 grandchildren come to visit.

See Lesley Riley’s artwork by visiting her website LesleyRiley.com