Today we’d like to introduce you to Marithe Leon.
Hi Marithe, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
My name is Marithe Leon, I’m a painter and illustrator, I was born in Lima- Peru, I’m fluent in Spanish, I speak English and French, I’m 56 years old, and love to travel. My first experience in the world of art was as a student in different summer workshops in my country, this experience helps me to take a decision about my future, what I want to be, and what I want to do.
In college, I developed my skills in visual arts and becoming in a graphic designer and illustrator, but my passion has always been painting, in this point, I started to develop my own personal style through my feelings and by allowing my own imagination to soar without limits. I love experimenting with new techniques, colors, and mediums, trying out different materials, and taking advantage of anything that serves as a tool to attain a final product.
I’m very critical of my work, and several times I have repainted a canvas that I didn’t think like. I was working in several advertising companies, and I also worked as a freelance, 2021 I become part of a Broward Art Guild, and this year I joined two plus three artist’s organizations, with these two groups I have the opportunity to make exhibitions, individuals and communities in this country.
I also participated in international exhibitions in the past two years, I have the fortunate to have my own workspace, my studio, a place where I can create and experiment with art. Finally, I want to talk about my family my husband and children without their help and support I would not able to achieve what I have, and my parents who allowed me to follow my dreams and support me always.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My path has been moderately easy when it comes to creating and discovering in the art, the difficult part is to sell my artwork, but I think that with the help of social networks, and interviews that help me make my name sound a little more. in other ways I’m my worst critic, I demanded a lot of myself, and many times I’m not happy with the results.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have different topics, and therefore I work on them differently. I usually work with two completely different mediums, one is acrylic and the other is alcohol ink, when I work with acrylic, I can paint something realistic, close to the illustrations, my favorites are the animals, also I created pieces of kids more simple with a lot of colors, other times I work abstractly, hiding characters and things in my paintings, landscape and still live and also part of my repertoire.
When I work with alcohol ink, it’s between the landscape and the abstract, in both techniques I let intuition guide my work. More than proud, going makes me feel happy, is when someone approaches me in an exhibition and tells me my work conveys joy, this makes me feel that I’m on the right path. The last question is really tricky for me because art is the expression of ourselves, and starting from there I’m already different from the rest of the people, I love my work, I love what I do, and the Artis that I’ve become.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I would have liked someone not to compare myself to others, that would have given me more security in what I wanted to do. I have a metaphor “We always see the neighbor’s garden greener than ours “, and we should stop that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.marithe-leon.com
- Instagram: @marithe leon art studio
- Facebook: @Marithe Leon Art Studio
