Michelle Leivan Original Paintings

My enduring subject is the female form with a subversive twist on the classic nude. Stripping the figure of the culturally significant cues of beauty, I dare the viewer to find the subtle essence of facial expression and gesture. My unexpected pallet provides a multicultural, non-ethnic specific tone which captures the universal aspects of femininity. This has developed into 2 series, "Feminine Desert" which presents impressionistic portraits with prose considering the duality of co-dependency and "Celestial Correspondence" which are dominated by abstract female nudes inspired by the complex social and emotional soul searching which developed during the deployment of my husband and I have recently resurrected this series with current events cycling back to another deployment.