Liz Lesperance Reflections – References From Life - Summer 2007 Issue of Horses in Art Magazine

Liz Lesperance Reflections – References From Life

by Sarah H. Crampton, Editor

Three’s a Crowd, Oil by Liz Lesperance.
Liz Lesperance used her portfolio of commissioned horse paintings to get herself accepted into a technical illustration course in art college. Shortly after college she was commissioned to create wildlife art that was viewed by a local gallery. The gallery sold her wildlife paintings for more than her commissioned horse paintings and Lesperance became entrenched in the burgeoning wildlife art market of the ’80s.

Liz has owned and ridden show horses ever since she finished college thirty years ago. She has had a Paint horse champion, shown Quarter horses English and western, dabbled in cutting horses, and for the past ten years, reining has been her passion. At the moment Liz has a homebred filly in training, out of her own successful show mare.

An invitation to live on the Grapevine Canyon cattle/guest ranch in Arizona gave Liz the opportunity to paint horses again. She comments, “I was totally immersed in the cowboy way of life, helping with cattle work and meeting horse- loving people from all over the world. It felt so good to be painting horses again.” Since moving to California, she continues to do horse commissions, while her wildlife paintings are sold in galleries across the country. Last year, she joined the Judith Hale Gallery in Los Olivos, California, where her equine paintings have found a market.

Antonelli’s Mares – Oil by Liz Lesperance.
The opportunities to study with artists who paint from life, such as Matt Smith, Mark Daily, Michael Lynch, Ken Auster, and Morgan Weistling, has had a profound impact on her art. She also painted horses from life with Ned Jacob at a workshop in Texas. “Now a small life study is always part of my reference, along with the photographs I take,” explains Liz. “Not only do they represent the true values and color of what I am trying to express, but the few hours spent looking long and hard at a horse or a landscape burns the memory of it into my mind.”

Two recent oil paintings by Lesperance titled Three’s A Crowd and Three’s Company depict familiar antics of young foals. The soft light of the paintings reflects the nonthreatening playfulness of the young colts as they scratch and chew. Lesperance has tenderly executed the scene with soothing colors and a chiaroscuro technique to enhance the focus on the threesomes. They interact with a simple backdrop of distant hills – no buildings, fences or humans to clutter or distract the viewer.

Liz Lesperance has collaborated with the Grapevine Canyon Ranch in Arizona to hold a five-day workshop in early November 2007. There will be the opportunity to paint all day, or ride in the morning and paint in the afternoon. Liz comments, “The scenery is spectacular, there are many horses to paint, and the light of Arizona is hard to beat.”

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