Leigh Witherell, a Contemporary Figurative artist...

... based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA, emerged from the wide skies of Texas and the close-knit bonds of a modest small town upbringing, where scarcity pressed creativity into the fabric of daily life. From childhood, Leigh found encouragement in her mother’s warmth and strength, and from extended family whose leanings toward craft and writing hinted at a legacy of unspoken inspiration.

Leigh’s journey toward art, however, was neither linear nor without heartbreak. Although always drawn to creative expression, it was the devastating loss of her daughter that crystallized the role of art in her life. In the immense silence of grief, she found language inadequate, but a canvas, with its capacity for depth and ambiguity, became the only venue where agony could meet acknowledgment and tenderness. Standing in what would become her studio, she recognized her brush as a vehicle for conversations too difficult to carry with words.

Witherell’s educational path, though rooted in a BA in English, an MA in Literature, and a minor in Fine Art, led her first to teaching at a local college and devoting years to motherhood. Grief, paradoxically, returned her to her truest vocation, confronting her with the reality that time is never guaranteed, a lesson now pulsing at the heart of her practice.

At the core of Witherell’s work is a profound understanding of the human condition. She listens to life as one might listen to a symphony, attuned not just to notes but to the spaces between. The inspiration for her paintings is mined from observation, from the raw emotion flickering in the silences and the subtle shifts behind faces and conversations. Her signature approach is figurative, eschewing formal portraiture for a freer translation of the soul—a focus on capturing essence over accuracy, impression over imitation. “I paint human emotion in its most raw form,” she says, “but I never scream in my work. I prefer subtlety, a quiet conversation.”

Witherell’s creative process was shaped by her discovery of aphantasia, which is simply the inability to visualize images in her mind. Rather than a limitation, this neurological divergence has led her to embrace technology as an ally: reference images and digital tools help her bridge brain and brush, allowing her to evolve a style organically, a dialogue between experiment and intuition. Through this, she found her unique home as an artist, melding what is seen with what is deeply felt.

Leigh’s unique gift lies in her ability to attune herself to the unsaid. Those who encounter her work often find themselves face-to-face with their own unspoken stories. Her figures become mirrors for pain, resilience, and longing that go beyond the individual to touch a universal chord. Her latest project, “Tell me how…,” remains deliberately unfinished in title, inviting viewers to complete the narrative with their own experience, an open portal to empathy and introspection.

The influences of the Impressionists echo in her dedication to capturing the quotidian and in her allegiance to Degas’s assertion that “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Leigh is an active member of the Art Ladder, Artists Freedom Hub, and the Visual Artists Association, and her work has been featured in a wide array of international exhibitions and publications, including Artist Talk Magazine, Influx Magazine, Novum Artis, the Art in Orbit podcast, and Contemporary Art Curator Magazine. Notable recognitions include the NY Resilience Award: Healing Through Art, the Woman Art Award by MUSA, and accolades from Contemporary Art Curator Magazine and the Circle Foundation for the Arts, among others.

In her practice, muted shades of blues and greens often predominate, lending her pieces a quiet, immersive presence. Critics and viewers alike describe her paintings as strong, emotional, provocative, and meticulously detailed. Leigh’s work with grieving parents has become both the most rewarding and the most challenging aspect of her oeuvre, a testament to her willingness to bear witness to the spectrum of human grief and hope.

When not creating, Leigh finds joy exploring new restaurants, traveling, and collecting mementos, (magnets and Christmas ornaments),from each journey, each artifact a tangible memory amid intangible emotions.

For Leigh Witherell, art is first and foremost an invitation to conversation. It is a silent beckoning for the viewer to enter into meaning, understanding, and, perhaps, healing. She strives for her work to live not only in galleries and museums across the world, but in the quiet spaces where people need it most, believing that art’s greatest role is to help us see each other, and ourselves, more deeply.