Inspiration comes by way of experience, dream, memory or idea. The works push beyond the boundary of surface description to a deeper, numinous or magical realism. They are rooted in reality but occupy a space that is more real, more colorful; more alive. 

I try to capture those moments that lift the veil of our limited perception of what is real, to a fuller, soulful and spiritual understanding of The beauty of creation. My goal is to honor the world for its true self.

I experience the landscape and all the life forms it nourishes and translate those experiences into drawings. The drawings are transferred to blocks of linoleum or wood. The slow, meditative process of carving distills and clarifies the images. I print their surfaces onto hand-made paper using a Charles Brand Etching Press. Color is added with reduction or multi-block printing, or hand-colored with watercolor or encaustic paint.

Leslie Peebles was born in Hackensack, New Jersey in 1959, lived in the suburbs of New York City until 1971 when she and her family moved to Suwannee County, Florida where her father became a Broiler Chicken Producer for Gold Kist. Living on the 80 acre farm near the Suwannee River fostered a deep love, respect and fascination for nature.

Leslie attended The University of the South in Sewanee Tennessee and received her B.A. in Studio Art from Newcomb College in New Orleans in 1981. Leslie moved to Gainesville in 1985 and received an M.A. in Art Education from U.F. in 1994. She taught Art for 17 years in Florida. 

Leslie has won numerous awards including First place from Coconut Grove, Tallahassee, Mount Dora, and the Morse Museum Award from Winter Park. She is currently represented by Gallery Rinard in New Orleans and River's Edge Gallery in Appalachicola.

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