We present...

Lea Laboy has always wanted to be a painter. Art has accompanied her ever since she can remember, thanks to her father who collected paintings. “Our family home resembled a prosperous art gallery in which academic landscape paintings dominated.”

Although she has been fond of paintings by various artists, “true love revealed when I saw William Turner’s paintings. I remember that moment very well when I saw his paintings for the first time. Turner’s work, for me, was so stunning – even breathtaking – with extremely beautiful colours and delightful movement of light, captivating beauty, for which I could not find words.”

Lea tends not to paint the same subjects. “My professor always told me, ask yourself: why are you doing this? And if you don’t find the answer, stop and change direction.” This is the motto she paints by and the reason she doesn’t recreate photographs from “glossy magazines.”

She also doesn’t follow any trends when it comes to art, which is what she believes sets her apart from other artists.

“It doesn’t lead to the development of artistic thought nor technique. All my paintings are based on the study of colour, light, composition and the relationships between them.”

She works as an artist with an emphasis on painting rather than earning. After graduating, she managed to collaborate with several galleries leading to various sales. “Individual clients also began to appear, for example, I had the pleasure of working for the resident consul and painting for the Head of the Holy See in the Vatican. I have also expanded my activities to include a scientific didactic publication and last year, I issued my first postage stamp and created the Ex Libris.”

Lea prefers to work in oil as it allows her to achieve ‘painting assumptions’ and she always chooses oil paints that “have preserved historical recipes, contain a high percentage of pigmentation and are lightfast. I also conduct research for creating my own oil paints using old recipes. I hope someday I can create my own paints.”

Her surroundings and environment do not influence her work and Lea always has specific goals in mind. Her paintings are primarily influenced by the quality of knowledge she can acquire and the ability to use it. “My primary task is to focus on work, which means that I need to be ready at the easel every day at six in the morning and still try to overcome my limitations to keep going even if – at the end of the day – it turns out that my efforts were not satisfactory and I have to start all over again.” britishartclub.co.uk/profile/lea-laboy ▫