Artist Focus: Leah Lucas

Being an artist is not knowing everything, but continuously learning. It’s a sentiment subscribed to by painter Leah Lucas. “I am still growing as an artist. Each day, each painting pushes me further into a world that is constantly changing and asking more of me,” she says.

Southern Alberta East, oil on board, 20 x 16”

“I see that my painting is never totally finished until it reaches the eye of the viewer, and it was certainly so with my experience to choose to paint Intention and Trust, a painting done from my heart. Dealing with the composition of the tender subject matter meant I truly had to delve into unknown territory and research. The ‘art of stepping away,’ as my mentor Richard Nichols likes to suggest, stood me well through the intense process.”

Three Seconds to Go…, oil on board, 18 x 24”

Intention and Trust was presented at the Calgary Stampede and brought forth strong responses from the many people entering Lucas’ booth—“goosebumps and weepiness,” one collector told her. To elicit such emotion from a viewer is a gift to an artist. “If I were never to paint again I am overwhelmingly gratified,” Lucas adds. —