Lesley Oldaker

Lesley Oldaker is a British artist who grew up and has since returned to live and work near Bath, UK. Lesley initially studied and qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Scientists, working in hospital pathology departments around the country for many years.

She followed her interest in art and painting throughout her medical career by regularly attending various art courses and art-groups. It was her enjoyment of life art classes, where her fascination of the human form arose and later led her to return to art college to study full-time. A move to Zurich, Switzerland for 7 years in 2011, was where her journey as an emerging artist progressed. Lesley was invited to a fully funded artist residency in China in 2012. The amazing experience and connections made during the residency led to more opportunities and the start of her current professional career as a visual artist.

Lesley’s work is all about how we see ourselves and others within society. She has developed her style to successfully express her interpretations of the complex interactions of people in our continually changing urban environments. Inspiration and ideas evolve from events seen in the media and in society in general that evoke strong emotional responses within the artist. Her perceptive observations of human behaviour, together with her own personal experiences, enhance the emotive narratives of her paintings and often communicate a common sense of displacement, a question of belonging and relevance within all our shared spaces. Her paintings aim to connect to the viewers’ personal lived experiences and encourage them to explore and question their own inner emotions and reactions, which hopefully will engage them to feel that they are part of the life within the painting.

Lesley has been painting full time for 12 years now, achieving various art awards, features and opportunities during that period. She’s exhibited in London, Zurich, New York, Paris, New Delhi, Florence, Stockholm, Bratislava and China, and has work in private and corporate collections across the world. She works from studios in her garden and welcomes commissions and collaborations; recently working with actor/director Thomas Sadoski on a stage painting for a play in NYC, a US film company on a documentary about mental health issues and on various book and album cover collaborations.