By Dorothy S. Pam

What makes an artist, and how does someone discover his or her vocation?  How do one’s choices further or preclude a sucessful life as an artist? Leslie Watkins, who has an exhibition of her work at the Library this month, is a gifted artist who has consistently found a way to support her independence   yet at the same time follow her artistic vision. Through the years she has held jobs as a commercial artist and illustrator, but still has painted for hours each day and devoted almost every summer to full-time plein-air painting in the countryside.

\In the Hudson River Valley where she grew up, Watkins developed her deep love of nature and landscape. Her father, a printer, brought home reams of paper for her to draw on. He proudly carried her diminutive first book (created when she was 3) in his wallet for years. In the turbulent ’70’s, she became independent with a job and an apartment in Manhattan. Working firstly as a secretary, then as a bookkeeper, Watkins’s art was a private matter until her boss saw one of her drawings and said, “You should be an artist!” Struck by this idea, Watkins found her way to the Art Students’ League, quit her job and began to study art full time.

At the Art Students’ League, Watkins found great teachers and mentors who guided her to scholarships and jobs so she could study drawing, oil painting, and watercolor. Seven years were spent studying in Studio 7 with master teacher, Frank Mason, a New York classical realist painter. Watkins’s large painting, “Homage” includes a copy of a Mason self-portrait. His influence on her approach to painting, in rediscovering the methods and materials of the great masters, and of supporting the work of Artwatch International, has been formative to Watkins’ artistic life.

In New York, Watkins created botanicals for Tiffany’s and served as a project manager in educational publishing. Her illustrations can be found in such places as Scholastic Publications, Golden Books, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida. She has taught art and exhibited her work in individual and group shows.

Through the years, especially in the summers painting with the Frank Mason landscape class, it is not surprising that Watkins’s path has crossed that of Arden Mason, Frank’s son, many times. Their friendship deepened a few years ago to the point where Watkins left her job in New York and her studio in New Jersey to join Arden Mason in Norfolk in 2003.

A plein-air painter, Watkins paints alla prima, all in one shot, which can later be referred to for larger compositions in her studio. A tonalist, she values the way light hits an object. The challenge is first to witness a moment of great beauty, such as the sunset from Station Place, or a rainbow held by the moisture in the air, then to try to capture it.

Once settled in Norfolk, Watkins needed a new studio. The house she bought last year on Route 272 South is now a light-filled space with peaked ceilings and walls hung with her work. Watkins designed every part of her new studio including the living space, which features a big hearthstone made from local stone. Love of nature has been a constant in her life and work, and now, her new studio completed, Watkins can devote herself to discovering and expressing the beauty she finds in Norfolk.

The opening reception for the exhibition will be Sunday, September 2 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Library.