Lee Eckles July 21 – September 26, 2026
Artist’s Statement
I have loved art all my life. My earliest artistic memory is of creating a colored chalk drawing of a ship on the front chalk board in my 4th grade classroom. Later that year I was given the opportunity to attend Saturday morning art instruction at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh which I attended for two years. Throughout Junior and Senior High School, I was the “go to” person to create posters for our school events. Other creative outlets included designing and sewing doll clothes, just prior to the beginning of the Barbie doll craze.
While I attended Penn State studying Consumer Services in Business, I still managed to take a few art courses to satisfy my creative needs, including life drawing and sculpture. I had always dreamed of painting, but never ventured there, managing only an occasional sketch throughout my life until I retired. Then I realized I was going to have a lot of time available to do whatever I wanted so my thoughts returned to painting.
My first painting was done at a sip and paint event just after I retired. I had fun and found the experience very relaxing…or maybe it was just the wine. Then I enrolled in a semester at Cuyahoga Community College and enjoyed painting in acrylics with other adults who were at various levels of expertise. I paint in acrylic as it dies quickly so was easy to transport after a lesson (this can also be a down-side!) and is relatively inexpensive in comparison to oils. Next, I took a year of lessons from a recent college graduate until Covid happened. I continued to paint on my own for the next year but realized I needed more instruction My daughter, Aimee, referred me to the husband of one of her college friends who is an accomplished painter, college teacher and former gallery owner, Chris Stangler. I have been taking lessons from him for over four years using Facetime as he is located in a different city!
I haven’t settled for a particular painting subject as I explore many possibilities: landscapes, flowers, still life, even portraits. Painting has made me more observant of nature and many of my paintings are from photos I have taken. Some of the paintings in this show have been inspired by my frequent walks in the area Metroparks and others are of everyday scenes as I see life.
Lee Eckles