: About Lenore
Learn more...
About
About Lenore
Do you really want to know? Okay. I was born in Chicago, raised in the southern mountains, lived overseas in Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia for thirty years, and came to the North Carolina mountains in 1990. Using the exotic ideas and images I collected from working around the world, I've been painting here in the mountains, first going into prints (lithographs and giclees) and now specializing in original oils on canvas.
I'm part of a wonderful art community in Ashe County, North Carolina, where I hope to be of service as a supporter of the arts. I've been married to my favorite guy Gordon forever and a day, and we have four children scattered over the US. who love to visit us in the mountains with their spouses and children.
No dogs or cats. Yet.
A Return to Persian Storybook Art
In the summer of 1981 a group of 100 American families with kids, cats, dogs and emergency boxes boarded a plane headed for the Saudi Arabian desert. Our talents and callings were diverse. My husband was a teacher, and I, as an artist and writer went along as baggage and chattels, wondering what kind of challenge I would find in this barren desert kingdom.
To my surprise, I discovered Persian Art - an art so intricate and mystifying that unraveling it's What and How became an all-absorbing task. After pondering, researching, and experimenting for several years I finally dared to paint a Saudi scene in this ancient art, and began an art business in Saudi Arabia which ended in original works being purchased by the royal family for a cultural museum in Riyadh.
If you are nearby, stop by Originals Only Gallery, 3B N. Jefferson Ave., in West Jefferson, NC. My work is on display. The phone number for the gallery is 336-846-1636.
About Persian Art:
Developed from 1250 to 1700 on a trail that led from present day Iraq to Iran to India, these unique paintings were used as book illustrations, usually only a few inches wide, and tucked into handwritten manuscripts. They purposely set themselves apart from the Greek and Roman origins of western art, forgoing the principles of shadow, perspective and the imitation of reality. Persian art approached illustration in a poetic frame of mind. No shadows, No perspective. High horizons (or none). Geometric designs. No distortion of the human figure. No empty spaces. Vibrations of jewel-like bright colors. Ornate borders - violation of the borders . Invented trees and rocks and clouds, and architectural constructs. What a mind set! Long before Europe broke out of obligatory obedience to realistic art, the middle east had done it!
In 1990, when we returned to the US, we settled in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina, and I began a project of using these principles of art to portray the life and people of the Blue Ridge area; a cross cultural task of challenging proportions! From 1990 to 2003 I painted and produced lithographs of the designs presented on the website. Then after those years I decided to move on to a more western realistic style (perhaps just to prove that I could!) and eventually used elements of Persian Art to develop a contemporary american style of my own.
Then last summer I was asked to teach Persian Art at our local Florence Art School, and re-experienced, in teaching, the wonderful riches of this type of art; it's history, it's uniqueness, and it's adaptability to so much present day art. After getting back in touch with this amazing technique I have decided to feature it on my website, making it available on the internet for the enrichment of your life.