Lesley Thiel shies away from the description ‘equestrian artist’. Although she is renowned for her extraordinary paintings of horses, her compositions could perhaps be better described as portraits, conveying the individual traits of each magnificent subject.
Although she was born and educated in England, Lesley has lived most of her adult life in Germany, Switzerland and the USA. Having originally trained as a scientist and worked in various fields of scientific research, she formed her love of horses while visiting a friend’s Stud in the United States. Despite her early love of painting and drawing, it took this encounter with an inspirational subject to reignite her passion for art, and it was here that she once again began to paint. Taking the spirited Arabian horses around her as her subject, she was soon producing work of great power and drama.
In Lesley’s own words: “I have always loved natural life forms and the beauty of the natural world. It was spending time around Arab horses that finally inspired me to follow my dream and start painting and drawing again. Their intelligence, grace and elegance captivated me. I didn’t just want to watch horses, I wanted to commemorate their beauty and grace, to pay tribute to them as individuals and share this with others through my work”.
Lesley’s work has been exhibited at Mall Galleries and all over the UK and the USA. Her opinions are also valued in the academic world and she has delivered several guest lectures on art at British universities.
