For the month of May this year, Gallery North is excited to feature the brilliantly colorful paintings of member Leanna Leitzke in an exhibit entitled “Beauty Is Around Us”.

Leanna has been painting since she was three years old.  “My mom was very supportive of my drawing and water coloring,” she says.  “I used to come to her with every single picture and she always said, Very nice, good job!  Now many years later, she hasn’t changed – looking at my new paintings on Skype she says the same words, ‘Good job, I like it.’”

“My mom never painted herself, but she enjoyed buying art books and encyclopedias.  The most influential for me were the Renaissance and French Impressionism books.  I found out from those readings that very often art teachers limit their students by teaching them certain rules, which could prevent art students from being fearless and developing their own unique artistic eye and technique.  For this reason, it came to me that I should be self-taught.”

Leanna loves sharing her inner self and her love for life through her art.  Her paintings have won awards in numerous juried exhibits and have found homes from Paris to London to Eastern Europe as well as Florida, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC.  “The clock is ticking – I’m in a hurry!” she laughs.  “All my most beautiful paintings are yet to come.  They are there, in my mind, ready to go . . .”

There will be a “Meet the Artist” reception at Gallery North during Art Walk on May 19 from 5-8 pm.