Leanne Baird is a visual artist residing in Peterborough, Ontario. A former landscape designer and graduate of the Fine Art program at the University of Toronto, Leanne’s love of the natural world has evolved onto the canvas. Leanne followed her passion to be a visual artist and returned to school to obtain her BA from the University of Toronto in studio and psychology. Her education also includes studying with artist Michelle Cassou in Taos, New Mexico. Cassou is the pioneer of intuitive painting workshops “Awakening to Zero Point” which facilitates artists to access deeper reservoirs of creativity. Leanne has also participated in a year of intense study at a retreat in the Catskills where she immersed herself in the study of yoga and ancient Indian scriptures. This experience has enabled her to develop a subtler eye and a sublime feeling for her surroundings.
Continuing to be inspired by nature, Leanne’s art making process focuses on the landscape, specifically trees. Leanne practices capturing the feeling of the natural world by immersing herself into the elements of nature such as earth, water and light and expressing her experience in an abstracted expression of the landscape. She currently works with the acrylic medium, occasionally adding mixed media such as gold leaf. Sketching on location allows Leanne to be absorbed in the elements of nature and express her subjective interpretation of what she experiences through the use of line, shape, form and colour. She then transfers these experiences into her final piece as she works in the studio.
Leanne’s work is also inspired by sacred art and geometry such as Mandalas. She made the study of Mandalas her focus during her final year of independent studies at The University of Toronto and continues to create them. She currently gives workshops entitled “ A Vision Quest into the Mandala” where she facilitates participants to awaken to their creative power within.
