Leigh Gordon’s coastal scenes and submarine nature paintings have that unique balance of lived-in specificity and evocative stylization that every great figurative artist wields. Her refreshing, sun-splashed views of beaches and reefs in Queensland draw on viewers’ own maritime experiences while portraying uniquely Australian sights with powerful aesthetic vision. Almost every acrylic canvas is dominated by a superb spectrum of blues, from light, tropical tones to deep royals. In many cases she uses these colors as the visual foundations for her compositions, punctuating aquatic fields with bursts of contrasting and complimentary hues.
Bright reds, oranges and yellows leap from cool blue waters, creating fluid interplays between foreground and background, subject and setting. Gordon crafts specific textures like the rounded surfaces of gentle waves, birds’ wind-stroked feathers and the smooth, surreally colorful skins of fish. All this attention to sharp detail, combined with carefully poised outlines and a level of impressionistic application, makes each composition infinitely enthralling. Each painting takes us back to the beach.