Leigh O’Brien Art

30/04/2025

Grab your friends, pour a glass, and paint the night away — seats are limited, book now!

05/04/2025

A few snaps from my recent exhibition at Whistlestop Food & Wine 📸

14/03/2025

Whistlestop resident Gary, helping me with flyer distribution today for my upcoming art exhibition, next Saturday 22 March!
He’s totally ‘frilled’ about it!

17/02/2025

17/02/2025

Magenta wave 🩷

16/02/2025

Limitless 💜🩷🩵

14/02/2025

14/02/2025

An Octopus’s Garden 🐙🪸

13/02/2025

Have been experimenting with texture a lot lately

16/01/2025

Current work in progress… it’s sooo hot outside today, so just doing bits and pieces! Can’t decide where to next or if this is close to being finished 🤔

15/01/2025

I’ve always found joy in painting ever since I was a little girl. My mother enrolled me in an art class when I was young and i just loved it!
Some of the other children in the class were a lot older than I was, so at times it was quite intimidating for me and when I would compare myself to others I more often than not felt inadequate.
But, when I just kept my focus on the page in front of me and the brush in my hand, that’s when I could be free to be myself and experience joy in creating something new.

I’ve always loved painting with a pallet knife and when I was about 7 years old I did this painting with a pallet knife.
My art teacher encouraged me to enter this painting into a competition… I didn’t want to, I was unhappy with the end result… I had to rush at the end and paint the vase with a brush and it really bugged (the 7 year old perfectionist in) me. It’s not what I had envisioned and I was embarrassed by it. I didn’t want anyone else to see it, let alone enter it in a competition!
My painting was entered in the competition and to my disbelief… I won first prize, (even beating the older children I was so intimidated by).
I still didn’t feel deserving and felt even more embarrassed that I won with THAT painting, but this has been a big learning opportunity for me throughout my life. I’m gradually beginning to let go of needing my art to be perfect, because that’s not what art should be about. Instead trying to focus more on enjoying the entire process and having fun, and taking risks.
My hope being that my paintings bring joy to those that see them and that they inspire them to look for the beauty in the every day.