Lee Christmas Halstead has lived in Charlottesville, VA for most of her life. She is mainly a self-taught painter and endeavors as a lifelong learner. She enjoyed teaching art before becoming a full-time painter. During the past 15 years she has focused her attention on plein air painting, out in nature engaged with the elements. Lee loves to fully understand the subject of her painting through an immersive sensorial experience.
Lee uses a limited palette of three primary colors in warms and cools, an earth tone, black and white. This simplification contributes to the harmony and unity Lee seeks in her paintings. Color shapes are abstracted to eliminate information. The immediacy of plein air painting can be seen in the painter’s response to her subject. Lee enjoys the presence that overcomes when translating from observed image to the marks on the canvas.
When she is not painting Lee can be found, in her garden, playing with grandchildren, reading, sauntering, swimming, sailing and studying art.
Lee’s paintings can be found at McGuffey Art Center and Cville Arts in Charlottesville, VA and at Annie Gould Gallery, Gordonsville, VA. Her work can be viewed on her website leehalstead.com and on Instagram #leechristmashalsteadart
