Leah Thompson has been a professional artist and elementary school art teacher for over 20 years. She specializes in creating colorful, expressive genre-style oil paintings and is best known for her impressionistic paintings of ballerina dancers. Leah also creates commissioned work and participates in community-centered art events.
“The whole premise of any of my work is the energy and the fleetingness of life. People aren’t stagnant; they move constantly. I want to capture that in my paintings through vivid colors and gestural brushstrokes. That energy, that fleetingness of life, happens throughout my creative process, from the first sketches to the final work.
I sketch life and community. I love to sketch anywhere there are people: restaurants, hospitals, malls, churches, the gym, and more. By choosing public gathering spaces and social human interactions as subject matter, my art honors the energy and atmosphere of community living.
My paintings are inspired by the works of Degas, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, and the German Expressionists.”
Leah lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Jon, and her son.