The Artist
I first connected with Leon is when my partner took me to an open day he was having at the Lennox st art studios back in December. He was kindly inviting people over to view his space and art as a way to get out and see some art during the pandemic and crazy rush before Christmas. My partner had been talking about Leon’s work and creative process and how she believed that I would enjoy meeting him (and photographing him). She was right.
Leon creates paintings that range from the tiny to the huge. On canvas, mosaic and even with embroidery. But his Cooper Shoot series are the ones that my partner and I really love. I will have one someday. Maybe more.
Leon talked about getting into a flow state and how his best works happen while in that zone. I have just finished the book “Atomic Habits” where James Clear talks about flow as a place a lot of artists and athletes reach when they lose track of time and flow on the edge of instinct and complete concentration. Being absorbed by the creation of art where everything else becomes secondary and the artist and art are the same.
For the first image I wanted to show that flow state. I used the big old piece of table glass, given to me by my friend Fed, and petroleum jelly rubbed generously over it to frame Leon. The image takes on a painted quality I really love which mirrors his art form. We shot a number of frames but the one that stuck with me, was Leon closing his eyes. Holding the glass but in a dream like state it reflects the state of flow he achieves when on the knife’s edge of creating those beautiful paintings.
In the next image I had Leon seated on a a platform he and a friend built to store and show off his larger artwork. He built in a mini chill out hutch under it ,complete with pillows, candle lamps and miniature artworks as decoration. It’s his “get out of here” space without really going anywhere. This image was to show him in his space and the scale of his work without distracting from it as a portrait. I sculpted the light to highlight Leon and his painting behind him with a small gridded soft-box and strobe. You can just see some of his current mosaic work in the foreground on the table. The edge of the table creates leading lines back up to the ladder and to the subject.
The final images are a darker series designed to show an introspective facet of Leon. No one likes to reveal the private part of themselves, even artists, for whom it looks like they lay everything bare in their work. Art is a way of expressing it, releasing the pressure but still keeping the private part as a place only the select few get to see. The shadow across the face hides part of the subject whilst the light reveals just a small facet of them.
Thank you Leon for being a beautiful person and letting me shoot you, your amazing work and the lovely space it was created in. Also for all the cups of coffee you made while I was fighting with my light stands.
Check out more on Leon here https://www.leonfernandes.art
and
Lennox Studios here http://lennoxstreetstudios.com
