Linsey Levendall’s inventive art transcends the styles he takes inspiration from; with components of surrealism and expressionism, to others with abstract, impressionism and realism – these pairings shouldn’t go together but they clearly do in Levendall’s work. The artist himself stating inspirations from cubism as well, but his work is definingly new and its thrilling to see.
Levendall’s eclectic images are rounded and full of colour, the mediums used being as expansive as his style with the multi-disciplinary artist working in paint, pastels, ballpoint pens, digital, felt-tip pens and coloured pencils, and often with a cross-combination.
Mirage of Lament, 2019, Acrylic and Ink on Birch Panel. Linsey Levendall: Instagram. Bēhance.
Image is courtesy of ThinkSpace Projects
It’s also clear that Levendall’s art is an inspiration for many a viewer, his love for drawing and capturing the bright eccentricities of life passing down to the next generation of artists, including his young daughter Talulah who collaborates with him. Their images lighting up social media sites, including the artist’s popular Instagram pages. What’s so exciting about this partnership is the sense of ‘unrestrictivesness’, of complete freedom of expression; there are no rules saying what’s wrong and what’s right, but an enjoyment in conveying emotions. Their styles vastly different, but it works so well.
Remember as You Wish/Untitled, 2018, Linsey Levendall: Instagram. Bēhance.
Collaboration with Linsey Levendall’s Daughter, Talulah.
Levendall’s artistic techniques create the impression of it taking shape naturally, rather than being constructed. His pieces range from using short and wide brush strokes, fine lines that appear as one from a distance, to others that are so concentrated in dashes that they have a resemblance to post-impressionism. Although the colours have a stronger richness of pastels, and with the use of plain backdrops – from the original canvas/paper – they produce a more modern image. Other works by Levendall use analytic cubism with abstract strokes that form a realistically rendered pencil drawing, or insert expressionist components that overlap the image. Levendall also produces dreamlike pencil drawings of finely detailed 2D images of surrealism and a strong use of symbolism. You can easily feel out of breath just looking at Levendall’s art; the layers having built up to create such intricate images, and with such diversity that there’s no sense of it being constricted. While there’s also a sense of peace to the images, with Levendall’s art feeling as though they’re just a daily extension of himself.
Effectively Levendall’s art is continually in flux, he doesn’t seem to settle in one area, but to explore where it can lead to, and then repeat the act of exploration all over again. His images are a constant reinvestigation of art, and are created with a sense of self-expression; investigating whatever is most in his mind; using experiences of everyday life; and a sense of allowing the subconscious to expand into the conscious. Whichever of his images you fall in love with first, Linsey Levendall’s unbounded pursuit of art is one to watch.
