The free exhibit “For the Love of My Ancestral Home” focuses on New Hampshire and is open to visitors through January and February 2025, on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Forest Society’s Conservation Center at 54 Portsmouth Street, in Concord, NH, about a one-hour drive from Wakefield. The organization will receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Leslie’s art. Please call 603-224-9945 before visiting the exhibit, as the room maybe booked for a meeting or event.
Leslie draws inspiration from color and light, whether she is working en plein air outdoors or working in her studio painting architecture, city scenes, or abstract creations. Making art for her is about working alongside the Creator. Leslie’s work reflects her spirituality and the gratitude she feels when creating and while outdoors. Her work has appeared throughout New England at juried art association shows, national shows, and resort properties. Leslie works in oil paints, cold wax, acrylic paints, mixed media, and photography. Her latest adventures are in mixed media cold wax and oil paint abstracts. Many of her paintings are impressionist-inspired en plein air creations with visible, luscious paintbrush and paint-knife strokes.
Leslie believes that her affinity for New Hampshire comes from her ancestry that goes back to the 1800s with each generation since living and vacationing there. This exhibit at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, known as The Forest Society, draws from her life-long love of New Hampshire, including time spent fishing, hiking, canoeing, and picking wild blueberries at the family camp in Ossipee; and skiing as a member of the Brettl-Hupfer Ski and Sports Club in Bartlett. She created most of the paintings while on camping trips throughout the White Mountains and Great North Woods.
“I have been traveling to New Hampshire since I was a newborn and my family has long roots there. I have long felt an emotional bond to the state that comes through my paintings. I visit there all seasons of the year,” says Leslie Scott-Lysan. “I believe in the mission of The Forest Society and am proud to do my small part in helping it conserve and care for New Hampshire forests that I so love.”
A 2006 vacation to Monhegan Island, ME, spurred her return to “my art” after being away from it for over 30 years. The artists there inspired her to buy some watercolor pencils, paper, and brushes to sketch a rusted, white iron bucket of bright red geraniums at the Monhegan House. She has studied with many New England artists, including Wakefield, MA artist Mary Taggart, master pastel artist and national juried oil painter Aline Ordman, of White River Junction, VT; oil and acrylic painter Emily Passman, of Lexington, MA; natural science illustrator and watercolor painter Sandy McDermott, of Exeter, NH; contemporary nature painter Elizabeth Awalt, of Concord, MA; and encaustic and cold wax artist Debra Claffey, of New Boston, NH.
Leslie’s work reflects her spiritual connection to nature, creation, and the gratitude she feels when experiencing them. Her awards and national recognitions include:
• North Shore Arts Association Janice Turner Memorial Award for Excellence in Oil Painting, “Bridging the Merrimac,” 2022 Exhibit New England, in Gloucester, MA
• “Fort Point Channel Landmark: Boston Wharf Company” oil painting juried into the national 20th Frances N. Roddy Open Competition at Concord Art (MA)
• Rockport Art Association and Museum (MA), 2023 National Juried Show, mixed media painting “Winter Woods: First Snow”
Leslie’s paintings have hung in many other juried art shows, including those with Cambridge Art Association (MA), Newburyport Art Association (MA), Artist Group of Charlestown (MA), Reading Art Association (MA).
Her work has also appeared at: Synergy shows at North Shore Art Association (Gloucester, MA), New England Art Reach exhibit at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital (MA), Beebe estate shows (Melrose, MA), Rockport Art Association and Museum (MA), Lynnfield Art (MA), Reading Art Association (MA), Wakefield Fine Art Exhibition and Arts Collaborative of Wakefield shows (MA). Additionally, her en plein air oil painting “View of Tuckerman Ravine,” Mt. Washington, NH, was selected for 2017 Concord Art (MA) calendar celebrating bicentennial celebration of birthday of Henry David Thoreau. And an en plein air oil painting of the Pink House, in Newbury, MA, appeared in the April 2016 issue of Northshore Magazine and on WCVB-TV Boston Channel 5 Chronicle. In association with the New Hampshire Plein Air group, her work hung in the “Nature’s Palette Exhibit” at the Wolfeboro Public Library (NH), Governor Wentworth Arts Council and has hung at the Bernerhoff Inn and Bartlett Inn, in Bartlett, NH; and the Red Jacket Mountain View Resort, in North Conway, NH.
Leslie Scott-Lysan is available for art commissions. Her online gallery is on the web at www.lesliescott-lysan.com and poste on social media platforms Facebook: www.facebook.com/scottlysanpainter, Instagram: @lesliescottlysan_artist, and Threads: @lesliescottlysan_artist