Myron Leski

Military Service

Branch: Army
Dates: From 1965 to 1969

I’m a Vietnam veteran. I was in art school when I got drafted, so I enlisted. After my discharge, I resumed my art studies, earning an MA in fine arts from Montclair State University. Nights, I studied at the Art Students League in New York City, learning how to paint while also teaching art in a parochial high school for six years (I was head of the art department). I quit to paint full time but couldn’t make a living at it. So I got a job as a Grade A pictorial billboard sign painter with Gannett Outdoor Advertising in Fairfield, NJ. I was with Gannett for 16 years while also self employed as a sign painter.

As a fine art painter now, my pictorial subjects include rural and urban themes, portraiture, equine, marine, and sports. Bird and animal subjects hold a special interest. Painted subjects that convey social statements of human interest are favorite themes. Among many others, my favorite painters include Edward Hopper, Eduoard Manet, John Singer Sargent, and Richard Schmid.

My paintings always start with something seen on field trips. Sketches and photographs of activity in the field are key references for the process. Planning and organizing that into a composition, manipulating paints in the studio and creating figurative imagery by twisting paint, simplifying color and values with brush strokes, is the fun part.

I usually paint with oil on a medium toned ground, using broad strokes to block in the subject and then refining the planes. Due to my woodworking skills, I can frame my own paintings, often with found, weathered wood which I recondition to suit the subject.