Featured Artist Leslie Franklin

Enjoy the free-flowing alcohol ink paintings of artist Leslie Franklin. Using a medium that is hard to control enables her to find a balance between realism and abstraction. Learn more by visiting her website.

 

 

Sometimes You Just Need a Purple Elephant. And why not? In the embryonic stages of creating art, I believed that the more realistic and “photo-like” one could paint, the better they were as an artist. Although my art was selling successfully, it seemed somewhat stifling and predictable to replicate reality.

 

 

I began to allow myself more freedom and strove to paint with loose elements of flowing color while still maintaining an identifiable portion of realism. This was more difficult than I had anticipated as my brain kept dictating what something “should” look like.

 

 

It was around this stage of frustration that I decided to force myself into more abstraction by choosing to work in a medium that was difficult to control. Enter alcohol ink.

 

 

Its waterlike consistence and short drying time provided obvious challenges. However, it was exactly this difficulty that drove the desired wedge between my tendency towards realism and my quest for loose abstraction.

 

 

Its vibrancy immediately tempted choices of non-traditional colors. Its fluidity on non-porous surfaces made realism a near impossible feat. Finally, I had found a medium that could provide the balance between realism and abstraction I had been seeking.

 

 

My preferred subject matter is animals. I usually begin a subject with an accurate and realistic depiction of the eyes which I feel are the critical feature.

 

 

Once I have captured the expression, I gravitate outwards to formulate a nose, ear or other discerning feature. From this point onward, I capitalize on the unpredictable characteristics, vibrancy and fluidity of the inks with limited control on my part. I let the ink run, mingle and splatter and in doing so, am able to easily depict a sense of liveliness and movement.

 

 

Often, I will incorporate characteristics of the animal’s environment within the shape of the animal itself.

 

 

I believe art has the power to create a state of mindfulness which is difficult to accomplish in our busy world. Our brains multi-think even while the body is multi-tasking. When I’m unloading the dishwasher, I’m not thinking about unloading the dishwasher. I’m thinking about the laundry load I need to transfer to the dryer, the dog wants out, I hope my child remembers her sister’s birthday on Tuesday, I wonder if my art show entry arrived in time and oh yeah, I need paprika. One’s thoughts are like a runaway train. Art, however, has the ability to bring that train to a screeching halt. Art captivates and brings the viewer immediately and fully into the present.

 

 

I strive to accomplish this with vibrant and alluring paintings of animals, tempting the viewer to take in the colors, the light, the impact and the emotions.

 

 

In doing so, I hope to simply make the viewer mindful of the beauty and existence of other species and by extension, elevate his or her concern and actions on issues that affect animals such as their ethical and humane treatment or preservation of their endangered habitats. Sometimes You Just Need a Purple Elephant to make a point.

 

Artist Leslie Franklin invites you to follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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