Leonard Aitken

I am currently engaged in painting a series of paintings based on Creation. They will be vibrant, colourful and filled with movement. Many will have a "cosmic" look or feel to them. They will be mostly mixed media works.

Another series which I will be starting soon is one called "Reasons for Living." It will be based on the good things in life - love, delight, peace, beauty, companionship, etc. These will be a combination of symbolic and more surreal works.

Saturday, November 8. The Sydney Morning Herald published an article about the EMSLA and mentioned the prize winners. It was exciting to see my name and the title of my work in the paper.

Leonard Aitken has been painting for 30 years. He has a love for all types of art, music, literature and film. Lenny (as he prefers to be called) prefers to paint realistic and surrealistic works. The natural world around him is his first inspiration, but most of his work is transformed by a prodigious imagination. His output is prolific and doesn’t confine itself just to painting but also music (composing, playing piano), writing (stories, poetry), film and animation. “I get easily bored doing the one thing all the time. I need constantly to experiment, use different mediums and explore different genres.” Usually he has about 20 paintings “in progress” at once, while simultaneously working on various musical, writing and animation projects. His paintings are usually built up in many layers of stains and glazes, although he is not averse to using impasto. Some of his paintings have been described as resembling "animation stills"; and his animations as having the quality of "paintings come to life".

2008: Winner of Local Government Prize ($5,000) at EMSLA award for Still Life.

2007: Finalist in the EMSLA award .Coffs Harbour

2004: Sawtell art Show. 1st prize open section

2004: Sawtell art Show. 1st prize in oil/acrylic section

2004: Winner of the More Property prize at Salute to the Arts (Coffs Harbour)

2004:Finalist – Country Energy.

2002: First prize in animation section in “Open Slather Film Festival”

2000: Deniliquin Community/Business Awards. Art/Culture Award.

1999: Deniliquin Art Exhibition: 1st prize in Sculpture section.

1995: Wagga Wagga Quota Art Competition. Oils section

1995: Wagga Wagga Quota Art Competition. Encouragement Award

1994: H.R. Gallop Perpetual Award for best overall result in first year visual arts (Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga)

1993: Oil prize at Deniliquin Art Exhibition.

Botanical Paintings

“My botanical paintings are quite intimate. I love insects, the details of leaves, little droplets of water and the peaceful solitude of a small nook in a garden. Light plays an important role in these works. All life comes from light. I especially love backlighting which shows up, the veins in leaves, the shadows of insects and other leaves or flowers showing through the main motif, or the general shapes and tones of the less important background features. The often soft-focus background suggests their is more in this scene than just the main motif. These works are a microcosm of the bountiful world within which they live.These works are painted carefully and lovingly. They have the ability to absorb the light with which they are illuminated."

Surrealist Paintings

“My surrealist works are wild and varied. Many are poetic representations of ideas or feelings which I have imagined or experienced. Others are based on dreams. Some of these works are just confections and closer to the realm of fantasy. Still others are purely improvised. These works begin with nothing more than the desire to paint. The paint goes on at random and the image grows and evolves. Often the concepts of these works evolve out of the process of painting. The use of space in my surrealist works is often ambiguous. Forms or areas of paint shimmer, moving backwards and forwards within the implied three dimensional plane of the painted surface. These shifting perspectives are like those moments of transformation within dreams where reality changes to unreality, or where scenes or meanings alter suddenly. The titles of these pieces are usually poetic and invite the viewer to observe the painting from their own perspective.”