“For me, the beauty of a landscape painting is its power to situate the viewer in the middle of nature providing a sensation of light, wind, water, and fog. Vistas and panoramas put the landscape at a distance. I prefer to crop the view to maximize the abstract quality of the composition and place the viewer inside the landscape.
When I look at a landscape I think about artists like Jackson Pollack, Morris Louis, Brice Marden and even Donald Judd. The lines, the light and the structure found in their work are what I look for in selecting my compositions. When I find these elements in a natural setting that is what I most enjoy painting.
Six of these eight landscapes are within a few miles of my studio in Upstate New York. Almond Tree, Biot is of a tree in a southern French village and Recycled Paper, Sasebo is a rendering of a Japanese outdoor recycling plant, an urban landscape. All of them are large painterly paintings where upon close examination the canvas simply looks flecked with paint. Despite having cropped the view these are paintings of real places with the light and atmosphere of a particular day. It is only at a distance that the painting appears photo-realistic”.
Leslie Parke
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2009
Solo Exhibition
Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, Vermont
2008
Solo Exhibition
+Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vermont
Group Exhibition
+Galerie Aqui Siam Ben, A.I.R. Vallauris, Vallauris, France
2007
Solo Exhibition
+David Zapf Gallery, San Diego, California
Group Exhibition
+Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, Vermont
2006
Solo Exhibitions
+Gibsone Jessop Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
+Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, Vermont
+Gallery 668, Battenville, New York
Group Exhibition
+David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, History of Women Artists from Mary Cassatt to the Present
+David Zapf Gallery, San Diego, California
+Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, Vermont
+University Art Museum, State University at Albany, Albany
+Maple Ridge, Coila, New York
2005
Solo Exhibition
+Gibsone Jessop Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
Group Exhibition
+David Zapf Gallery, San Diego, California
+Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, Vermont
+Gallery 668, Battenville, New York
2004
Solo Exhibition
+Gibsone Jessop Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
+Southern Vermont Art Center, Bennington, Vermont
Group Exhibition
+David Zapf Gallery, San Diego, California
+Dorset Gallery, Dorset, Vermont
+David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
2003
Solo Exhibition
+Gibsone Jessop Gallery, Toronto, Ontario
+Hopper House, Nyack, New York
+Gallery 668, Battenville, New York
Group Exhibition
+David Zapf Gallery, San Diego, California
+Dorset Gallery, Dorset, Vermont
+Lexington Art League, Lexington, Kentucky, The Nude 2003
+Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, Second Women’s Conference Exhibition
+Fine Arts Building Gallery, Naked or Nude, Chicago, Illinois
2002
Solo Exhibition
+Gremillion Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Group Exhibition
+Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida, Figurative Works
+David Zapf Gallery, San Diego, California, Fauna and Flora
+Gremillion Fine Arts, Inc. Houston, Texas
+Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, Vermont
+Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, New York, Mohawk Regional,
curated by Linda Norden, Assistant Curator Contemporary Art, Fogg Museum.
+Burpee Museum of Natural History, Rockford, Illinois
+Dorset Gallery, Dorset, Vermont
2001
Solo Exhibition
+Longstreth and Goldberg Gallery, Naples, Florida
Group Exhibition
+David Zapf Gallery, San Diego, California
+Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, Vermont
2000
Solo Exhibition
+Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, Vermont, Natural Histories
+Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont,
+The Weight of Pearls: The Still Life Paintings of Leslie Parke
+David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Group Exhibition
+Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee, It’s Only a Game: Sports and Games in Contemporary Art.
+David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Millennium Exhibition
+David Zapf Gallery, San Diego, California
+Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, Tennessee+College of Visual Arts Gallery, College of Visual Arts, St. Paul, Minnesota, Virtue
Group Exhibition
+David Zapf Gallery, San Diego, California
AWARDS & HONOURS
2009
Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council Arts Initiative Award
2008
A.I.R. Vallauris,
Two-month residency in Vallauris, France
2005
George Sugarman Foundation,
Artist Grant
2002
Jury Award, Armory Art Center,
Figurative Work 2002, West Palm Beach, Fl.
1994
Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Foundation International Artist, a program of Arts International, five-month residency in Giverny, France
Itzhak Sankowsky Award, Main Line Art Center, Color Now exhibition
1993
Selected Artist, New American Paintings, Mid-Atlantic Edition, Open Studio Press, juried by Elizabeth Sussman, curator, Whitney Museum of American Art
1992
Honor Award, Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture Visual ArtsAward Program, for the Giotto Series
1991
New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Grant, Research and catalog the Renaissance painting collection in the Georgi Museum
1989
First Prize, Marshall Cummings & Associates Competition: Art Program Purchase Awards for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
1974-1976
Fellowship, Bennington College Master of Fine Arts Program
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
A.I.R. Vallauris, Vallauris, France
Avon Corporation, New York, New York
Architects Collective, Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Ayco Company, L.P., Saratoga Springs, NY
Baker & Botts, Houston, Texas
Banks, Pickett, Gruen, and Shapiro, Mt. Kisco, New York
Benton Foundation, Washington, DC
Brown-Richter Animal Hospital, Coral Gables, Florida
Caesar’s Tahoe, Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, New York, New York
X. Carnoy Architecte, Ville d’Avray, France
Chesbro-Mitchell, New York, New York
Citibank, Los Angeles, California
Comdisco Equities, New York, New York
Community Guardian Bank, Englewood Park, New Jersey
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California
Cruise Services, Inc., Miami, Florida
DeVos, Inc., New York, New York
Diversity Property Investments, Maryland
Edwards & Angell, LLP, Short Hills, New Jersey
Ellington Club & Restaurant, Dallas, Texas
Embassy Suites Hotel, San Antonio, Texas
Embassy Suites Hotel, Santa Clara, California
The First Albany Corporation, New York, New York
Flomatic, Glens Falls, New York
Ann Garett Jewelry, Tulsa, Oklahoma
General Electric, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Greater Media, Inc., East Brunswick, New Jersey
Greenberg, Traurig, et al, Miami, Florida
Griffith Associates, Coral Gables, Florida
Harvard Business School, Cambridge, Massachusettes
The Hay Group, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Holiday Inn, Milipetas, California
IBM, Shady Grove, Maryland
IBM, New York, New York
IBM, Cary, North Carolina
Jewish Comunity Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Kaiser Permanente, Dallas, Texas
Kidde Corporation, Saddle Brook, New Jersey
Labor Institute of Public Affairs (AFL-CIO), Washington, D.C.
LeBoeuf Lamb Leiby & McCrea, New York, New York
M Bank Las Colinas, Dallas, Texas
Marketing Directors, New York, New York
Markle Foundation, New York, New York
McMahon/Oliphant Properties, Santa Ana, California
MKI Securities, New York, New York
MONY Financial Services, Teaneck, New Jersey
MONY Financial Services, New York,New York
Murdoch Magazines, Secaucus, New Jersey
NuMedia Corp., Washington, D.C.
Pacific Telephone, Los Angeles, California
Phillips Petroleum, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Pringle Resources, Austin, Texas
Quarles, Brady, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Ragu Foods, Inc., Trumbull, Connecticut
Rorer Pharmaceuticals, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania
Safra Bank, Miami, Florida
Shelton-Boles, New York, New York
The Singer Company, New York, New York
Sheraton Racine Hotel, Racine, Wisconsin
Southeast Banking, Miami, Florida
Takasago Flavors and Fragrance Co., Rockleigh, New Jersey
Tass Corporation, London, United Kingdom
Thomas + Betts Corp., Bridgewater, New Jersey
TRW, Lyndhurst, Ohio
Vandenhquvel Dineen, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Wallboard Tool Company, Long Beach, California
WHQT Radio, Coral Gables, Florida
Zack Shuster Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida
EDUCATION
1976
MA Bennington College, Bennington, VT
1974
BA Bennington College, Bennington, VT
1973
The Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, NY, NY
1970 —71
Mills College, Oakland, CA
1971
University of California, Berkeley, CA
1967 -1970
Woodstock Country School, South Woodstock, Vermont
