Natural Quirks

“I live my whole life in colour. A lot of my work is very vibrant, and I just love the boldness,” artist Leanne Dunstan of Edgworth, Lancashire beams. Better known as Red Betty due to her red hair, Scottish background and as a nod to her grandmother, Leanne has spent six years creating stunningly bold watercolours in her basement, capturing the natural world, and they have now been released into the wild with an exhibition at Longitude Gallery in Clitheroe.

Artist Leanne Dunstan’s Early Years

Born in Aberdeen, Leanne studied textiles and surface decoration at Gray’s School of Art which is part of Robert Gordon University. After graduating, she left Aberdeen in search of a role in the art industry, she found herself in Haslingden as an inhouse designer, creating wall coverings, soft furnishings and art for 14 years for both high end names and high street retailers. But after welcoming her second son, Charlie, Leanne, who is also mum to Jack, 12, decided to go part time, to focus more time on doing what she loves most – creating beautiful pieces of watercolour art.

Although Leanne really enjoyed the fashion side of her career, she missed the freedom of being able to paint and express herself freely. “I felt like I’d lost a little bit of my identity. After I had Charlie, my youngest, he’s eight now, I started to paint again. It’s mad that I hadn’t done it for so long, especially as I worked in a design studio, but you just don’t get chance to do stuff like that, especially as we were churning out an immense amount of work. I am really lucky because I now have this freedom to do what I want to do on any particular day.”

Art Career

Setting up a studio in the basement of her family home, she spent six years perfecting her unique style with an artistic passion she has nurtured from childhood. “If you ask my parents or friends, it’s always been art that I’ve been into. I’ve always been painting, drawing, doodling whatever I could get my hands on!”

I live my whole life in colour. A lot of my work is very vibrant, and I just love the boldness.

Her work has culminated in her first exhibition, Natural Quirks. The art series is being showcased at the Longitude Art Gallery, Clitheroe, Lancashire and the exhibition will run until the end of January. As the exhibition’s name suggests, Leanne draws inspiration from the natural world around us, using intricate watercolours to weave together detailed images of wild animals, combined with illustrations of flora and fauna.

Leanne’s Inspiration

“I just think wild animals are really interesting. I’m particular with detail and trying to make something look like it’s alive, getting lost in the colours of butterflies or dragonflies and trying to capture what they’re made of and how they move,” she explains. “It’s fascinating to paint what I visualise about them, and trying to create something that the viewer could connect with, through characters and stories drawn from my own experiences. At first appearance, it might look like a pretty picture of a wild animal but it’s much more than that – each piece tells a story.

The whole Forget-Me-Not piece is predominantly to do with my grandma

“The whole Forget-Me-Not piece is predominantly to do with my grandma and a lot of people related to the story of that piece at the exhibit. It’s to do with that matriarch in life. My grandma absolutely adored flowers and nature, and that’s where I probably get a lot of my inspiration from. I remember her garden as a child, there were roses and butterflies everywhere.

All of my art features butterflies, as they have a spiritual significance form because of their connection to her. After my grandma passed away a red admiral butterfly flew into my house on her birthday. Ever since, I’ve been visited by butterflies on important days and dates – even in the middle of winter.

“Although these stories are personal, in a lot of ways they’re not. We’re all human, we all go through life, love and death. The hope is people connect with my art – based on my past, present and future experience – and have their own unique take on it,” says artist Leanne Dunstan.

NorthernLife Jan/Feb 2023