Leigh Rivers was born on Long Island, New York in 1955. She has been creating art for over 40 years. She attended the New School of Social Research in addition to receiving her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art. Involved in experimental and innovative visual mediums during the late 1960’s, she also enjoyed a 20 year career as a production designer for feature films, television commercials and print advertising. An ongoing exploration in Eastern Medicine and Spiritual Disciplines has been ever present in her life. Having painted for many years, her eye for beauty and balance has culminated in the current collection.

River’s current series of paintings expresses the artists’ understanding the resonance of color and quiet motion on human perception. She invites the viewer to move through the visual to the sense experience of tranquility and peace. Her paintings evoke an essence of discovery, the sensibility of freedom and release from structure or restrictive form. Her work leads us to a gentle awareness, floating between the physical and ethereal, earth and air, stillness and motion, substance and vision. From visual stimulation to a feeling state of mind, River’s paintings lead us into a pleasurable experience of introspection and reflection.

“The canvas has a life energy infused by the artist. If you are open you can receive it. I trust that the viewer will have a subtle dialog with it. The canvas exposes the heart of the artist. I bring a deep compassion to my painting and resist labeling the world around me. Things are always changing and relationships are not defined, there is always a fluid dynamic available. The acceptance of fluid dynamics allows grace. I am asking the viewer to accept the fluid nature - to allow physical form to change and to evolve. Atmospheric landscapes are about time. You are not just setting solid form into space. Time moves matter into ever-changing energy where nothing exists statically. The acceptance that I am looking for is about motion and movement. It is a universal experience for me – it embodies compassion, all emotions from sadness and playfulness and light, it is less about nothing and much more about everything.. .. Nature is about movement and relationships between elements. … The work is safe and soothing because it is slow moving and free. Extremely active and quiet; similar to the Tao where you look at a leaf and understand the world, a more simple universal language, People have said the work seems so simple at first but actually it is very complicated and very subtle. The longer you look at it – it draws you into this place where you start to see subtlety and bring your attention into the present moment. That is the understanding and connection to equilibrium of the same moment, that I am in as I paint where silence and acceptance is the most understanding position.” - Leigh Rivers 2006

Rivers’ current theme is a series of subtle atmospheric occurrences. She presents us with a luminous and intriguing imagery revealing a subdued and ethereal light. Working from a linear horizon line, these compositions, softened with hazy contours and emerging light are inspired by a unique fascination with the play and vibration of color. These beautiful paintings exude a soothing and quieting atmosphere which not only alters the mood of the individual but sets the tone in the surrounding environment.