Sally Lesesne

Sally Lesesne is a self-described realist painter whose work appropriately reflects her grounded, yet romantic, view on the beauty of life. Sally attributes her love for art to growing up in Asheville, North Carolina, which was then, as it is now, a center for arts and crafts. This city of creativity led Sally to pursue her passion at Converse College in Spartanburg, SC, the University of Tennessee and Oxford University in England. "When I was in college, it was the end of the abstract expressionist era, so when I painted in my preferred realistic style, I was accused of 'painting like an old lady'. It has been nice to see realism make a comeback in recent years," Sally said. And why realism? "I paint people and places that I love and things I find beautiful. Beauty can be found all around us, even in the most mundane things."

For the last 20 years, Sally has been living in the oldest house in what she terms the "third-world", or more politely referred to as the "Historic District", on Daufuskie Island.  She thrives in the imagination of Daufuskie, and reminisces about sending her youngest son to the old two-room schoolhouse where Pat Conroy taught, and later to Hilton Head Island on a school boat. Although Sally has had plenty of personal accomplishments throughout her lifetime, she considers her greatest to have raised two sons who are both in creative fields, one a filmmaker in New York, and the other a writer in Charleston.

Her favorite and most gratifying professional memories include the times she traveled to Europe with her sister, who is a chef, to paint some of the beauty involved in her cooking demonstrations. "I recorded everything in my paintings: still lifes of the cooking ingredients, landscapes of the region, our guests drinking wine...I even painted my sister digging potatoes in France!" (Another random fact about Sally and her sister: although this is the first time Sally's work has been featured on the cover of Pink, it is not on the first time she has graced the cover. A painting of her and her sister sitting on the beach, painted by Vicky Spencer Evans, was the cover of our August, 2009 issue!)

Besides France, Sally has also traveled and painted in Provence, the Mediterranean, Tuscany, the English Lake District, the Austrian Alps, China, Canada, the Bahamas, as well as New England, and the coast of the South Eastern U.S.  She has exhibited in private, public, and corporate collections in the U.S. and England, and has taught at the Gibbs Art Gallery and Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina.

Over the years, Sally has explored nearly every subject to paint. She has found recently that her favorite pieces have been farm animals and children engaged in activities, such as making cookies in the kitchen, putting on lipstick, or picking okra in the garden, as opposed to classic portraits. Her goal for the future is to continue doing what she's doing for as long as possible.

To find out more about Sally Lesesne, or to see more of her work, please visit sallylesesne.com.