Collection: Lesley Fennell

Lesley Fennell is the daughter of botanical artist Wendy Walsh. She was born in England c. 1942. Lesley studied at the National College of Art, Dublin and the Byam Shaw School of Fine Art, London. In 1964 she won the Royal Dublin Society Taylor Art Award, and was runner up for the Henry Higgins Scholarship. She was a regular Exhibitor at th Royal Hibernian Academy, Living Art and Oireachtas Exhibitions, and completed many portrait commissions, including several of the academic staff at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1968 she married and after bringing up three children, various dogs and other animals, in 1989 she started painting again. In 2007 she won The Water Colour Society of Ireland - President's Award. She lives and works near Athy in County Kildare, and her work is based mainly on visual aspects of her own life and surroundings. She records the changes in her garden, house and the family and friends that go through them. She paints what she wants to remember. It is usually colour that is the catalyst for beginning a painting, the unexpected colour combinations in the ordinary, a diary of things she likes. She has always been drawn to the human figure, and draws extensively from life, particularly in pencil.