SOBO Artist of the Month: Mary Beth Lesko

The mission of the Winter Garden Art Association is to showcase, encourage and celebrate individual creativity and artistic expression among local artists.

West Orange County is teeming with artists whose talents range from visual to performing to literary arts. Whether they are expressing themselves with a microphone, paint brush and canvas, or the written word, artists and their creations give us avenues in which to imagine, dream and wonder.

In this feature, the Observer and the WGAA will highlight local artists.

This month, meet Clermont resident and artist Mary Beth Lesko.

How long have you been creating?

Since I took private oil painting and drawing classes at 16 years old

What is your favorite medium?

Colored pencil

What are some of your favorite themes in your artwork?

At the moment I am working on an animal series. I also have been painting Florida landscape and plant life for another series.

Why is expressing yourself through art important to you?

Expressing myself in art is very important to me. Using colored pencils to create fine art is amazing and gives me great joy. The medium allows me to create fine details for the animal’s fur and feathers, and I can manipulate it to look painterly or sketchy or pastel-like. The colored pencil medium is very versatile. It is clean, easy to use and easy to carry to do plein air work or studio work. It is very affordable, and most brands offer light-fast colors assuring that the art I create will last many years and not fade. It makes your art archival and perfect for collectors, galleries and museums. Colored pencil is a fine-art medium just like oil paint, pastels and acrylic paint.

The Colored Pencil Society of America is an art association that promotes the colored pencil medium as a fine-art medium. They have worked with pencil manufacturers to have the golden standard of light-fast pigments used in the making of colored pencils which allows artists using light-fast pencils to give extra value to their art.

Founded in 1990, the Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA) is a nonprofit organization for colored pencil enthusiasts working to promote colored pencils as a fine-art medium by sponsoring exhibitions and workshops, being involved in product research, and educating the public in general.

I teach colored pencil classes in my home and workshops at the SOBO Gallery in Winter Garden. I love teaching and have been using the colored pencil medium for more than 25 years. I have been teaching colored pencil techniques for 22 years and have been a member of CPSA since 1995.

What notable places has your artwork been displayed?

I have had a few pieces of my work selected for exhibition in the annual CPSA convention and its online “Explore This” exhibition. My work has also been selected for publication in the “Strokes of Genius” The Best of Drawing publications 8 and 9.

Accolades and awards?

I have won Best of Show and other awards for my colored pencil paintings.

Did you have a formal art education? If so, where and when?

I have an Associate in Arts degree from Luzerne County Community College and have studied with many professional colored pencil artists around the country. I am founder and past president of the Pennsylvania District Chapter 115 of the Colored Pencil Society of America. I am now a member of the Gainesville, Florida, district chapter.

Who is your favorite famous artist and why?

My most favorite female artist is Mary Cassatt. She is a famous painter, pastel artist and printer from Allegheny, Pennsylvania. She studied during the Impressionist painters era. Her painting style and subject matter inspires me. She often painted the social and private lives of women, with emphasis on the intimate bonds between the mother and her children. She lived most of her adult life in France and exhibited with the Impressionists.

My most favorite male artist is Claude Monet. He was a French painter and the founder of the Impressionist movement. He painted nature as he perceived it. He painted with Impressionist style, loose and using vibrant colors. He was primarily a landscape painter. His art style had a huge following during his time, and he was seen as a key precursor to Modernism in the arts.

In which museum worldwide would you most like to see your artwork displayed and why?

I would love to have one of my art pieces exhibited in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The National Gallery of Art is very prestigious, and one of my instructors in college had his work exhibited there, and I always wished to someday have one of my paintings there too.