Leigh Witherell

Leigh Witherell grew up in an environment shaped by practicality and necessity rather than by art. Daily life revolved around work, bills, and survival, and creative pursuits were not considered viable or useful. The arts were largely absent, not out of opposition, but because they were viewed as indulgent in a world that demanded constant effort just to get by.

Her earliest and most formative connection to creativity came through reading. As a child, she found refuge in fantasy literature—stories of knights, royalty, and distant worlds stocked thoughtfully by the small-town library she relied on. Reading became a vital escape from the pressures of everyday life and sparked a deep yearning for something beyond the visible and immediate. That longing did not arrive through a single defining moment, but through gradual necessity. Creativity evolved as a means of survival, not ambition.

Witherell’s formal education is rooted in literature. She earned both a BA and an MA in English Literature, grounding her thinking in narrative, symbolism, and the mechanics of escapism. Art remained private during this time, something she practiced for her own emotional sustenance rather than public recognition. Painting, in particular, became essential once she began lecturing at universities, offering a counterbalance to academic life and a space where emotional expression could exist without constraint.

Her literary background remains the foundation of her visual practice. An understanding of fantasy and escapism shapes how she approaches painting, allowing her to articulate the universal yearning for lives beyond routine and obligation. Through figurative contemporary art, she explores that longing with honesty and emotional clarity. Acrylic paint is her chosen medium, and figurative composition is the form to which she is deeply committed. It is where her emotional and intellectual life converges, and she sees no reason to leave it.

Recurring themes in Witherell’s work include sadness, longing, resilience, and the will to continue after profound loss. While grief is visible, it is not the only narrative. Her figures also carry determination and endurance, embodying the quiet insistence on living even after the most devastating experiences. Many of her figures are depicted nude, a deliberate choice that reflects vulnerability. Without clothing, the emotional shield is gone, and the inner life is fully exposed.

This openness is inseparable from her personal experience as a grieving parent. Painting grief is not conceptual for Witherell; it is lived reality. Her ongoing Invisibility Project, built from interviews with other grieving parents, is one of her most challenging bodies of work. Creating these paintings requires reopening her own loss repeatedly, making the process emotionally exhausting, yet necessary. The work demands completion, not for resolution, but for recognition.

Her creative process is structured and disciplined. She requires order and clarity in her environment, beginning each day early to ensure her space is clean and mentally quiet before entering the studio. Inspiration comes less from visual surroundings than from language. Conversations overheard in public spaces often become the seed for new work. One painting from her series Tell Me How… was inspired by a brief exchange between strangers in a restaurant, where vulnerability was met with care rather than dismissal. That moment of being heard stayed with her long enough to become an image.

A typical studio day is steady and grounded rather than dramatic. She works regular hours, accompanied by music or podcasts, often joined by her cats. Creative blocks are difficult, but she pushes through them by continuing to paint. Optimism, persistence, and support from her husband help her endure these periods, even when enjoyment temporarily fades.

For Witherell, success is not abstract. While emotional connection matters deeply, financial sustainability is essential. Art must support life, or it cannot continue. She rejects the romanticized myth of the starving artist, insisting that survival and creation must coexist. Her aspiration is for her work to find its people—those who need to see what she is expressing—and for that work to live in galleries and museums where sustained dialogue can occur.

Her personal life is inseparable from her art. Experiences of womanhood, motherhood, marriage, and grief appear unfiltered on the canvas. Loss stripped away artifice and forced an authenticity that she now embraces fully. Before her daughter’s death, her work was polished and safe. Afterward, it became honest. Through that honesty, she has found real connection.

Looking ahead, Witherell is developing a new series tentatively titled God Needs the Devil, which examines Jezebel mythology and its impact on women within religious culture. She has a solo exhibition scheduled during the Venice Biennale and continues to pursue exhibitions, art fairs, and commissions. At the center of her practice remains a refusal to flinch from truth. Life, she insists, is brutal and beautiful at once, and art must be brave enough to hold both.