Leah F. Thompson

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Leah Thompson is a professional artist and elementary school art teacher in Roanoke, VA. She specializes in creating colorful and expressive oil paintings. She is best known for her impressionistic paintings of ballerina dancers. Leah also paints vivid genre paintings, landscapes, and florals as well as commissioned works. Though oil paint is her primary medium of choice, she also has worked in acrylics, pen and ink, and oil pastels. Leah moved with her husband, Jon, to Roanoke from Philadelphia, PA in 1998. For the first few years, she primarily did commissioned murals in churches, like the mural of The Baptism of Jesus at Snow Creek Church in Rocky Mount. Then something happened that significantly changed the venue for her art and the path of her life. A few days after the birth of her son, Leah’s husband, Jon, was hit by a car. Recovery was long and painful for Leah and Jon. It was during this time that Jon found an article about an upcoming art show . He encouraged Leah to enter. It was during this small show that Leah discovered that people were attracted to her nontraditional expressive paintings. “The whole premise of my work is the energy and the fleetingness of life. People aren’t stagnant, they move constantly interacting with their environment. I want to capture that in my paintings through vivid colors and quick gestural brush strokes. That energy (that fleetingness of life) happens throughout my creative process- from the first sketches to the final painting. I love going to different gathering places and drawing people as they move along doing everyday activities. I sketch anywhere there are people-restaurants, hospitals, malls, church, the gym, pools, etc. Then, I compose those sketches into one cohesive painting using my own unique color palette on canvas with oil paint. My paintings are inspired by the works of Degas, Van Gogh, Kandinsky and the German Expressionist. “ Over 17 years, Leah has won many awards including best in oil painting at Virginia Western (2008), 2nd place for Pastels in Smith Mountain Art Council (SMAC) Art Show (2008), 2nd place in oils from the League of Roanoke Artist (LRA) Art Showcase (2011), 2nd place at the SMAC Art Show (2011), the purchase Award at the Art and Jazz in July Festival in Salem (2012), 1st place at the Art and Jazz in July Festival in Salem (2013) , 1st place in painting at the Giles County 'Art on the Lawn' (2014), the Mobility Award at The Taubman Museum of Art's 'Sidewalk Art Show, Honorable Mention at Lynchburg Art Festival, Lynchburg, VA(2016) the Yorktown Award at Lynchburg Art Festival, Lynchburg, VA (2018) and the Allen Ingles Palmer Memorial Award at Taubman Sidewalk Art Show, Roanoke, VA (2022). Leah’s artwork can be seen on Facebook and Instagram under Leah Thompson Originals and at Fine Art America (search Leah Thompson). You can contact Leah Thompson at 540-761-8755 (call or text) or [email protected].