Independent people lelia henry

Lelia Henry is an atypical artist in that she works outdoors tolerating all weathers throughout the year, rather than working in a studio.

She walks to her destination, which is usually to various spots beside the River Shannon, and remains there until she creates her nature pictures. This creative work of Lelia continues for almost every day of the year.

Lelia is a born and bred Coosan artist, and daughter of Noel and Angela Henry. Noel, of the Midland Bus Company is a well-known music enthusiast and authority on Athlone’s world famous 20th century tenor, John McCormack.

Art is something that Lelia didn’t consider throughout her formative years, but like her father, she had an interest in music, and played piano up to Leaving Cert in St. Joseph’s College, Summerhill.  However she admits that she envied the few other girls at the school who were studying art.

Lelia is living in Coosan, near her parents, Noel and Angela, who was a teacher at Coosan National School.  Lelia is the youngest of the five Henry siblings, which include, Nuala, Brendan, Aidan and Edel.  

After leaving school Lelia trained as a horse-riding instructor in Iris Kellett’s in Kildare and she worked throughout the country in that industry, and travelled to Italy to work there for a year.  After a horse-riding accident in Turin, she changed her life path, and after a period of recuperation, she trained as an Air Hostess with Aer Lingus, and for 22 years, while working as part of cabin crew, she flew the transatlantic flights.

Once, while stopping over in New York, Leila visited the Museum of Modern Art, and has always remembered two paintings in particular, a Rene Magritte street scene and a Piet Mondrian painting.

Lelia took her first art class in 2006 with Athlone artist, Geraldine Kretsch, and took further classes with Glasson artist, Noel Tighe.  

Lelia became hungry for further art knowledge, and in 2007, she decided to study Visual Arts at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire and also completed the Certificate in Drawing and Visual Investigation at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.

“I had no real knowledge or background in art, and some of the many classes I did in were in painting and drawing, and I hoped that was going to make me a better artist,” said Lelia.  

“I started by painting, and I had been doing a certain amount of drawings anyways.  I found that drawings will always feed in and improve your painting.”

In 2010, Lelia left Aer Lingus, and she travelled to Florence, where she spent several months studying Old Masters drawing techniques and on her return to Ireland, she did some drawing marathons at the Royal Hibernian Academy, which included doing life drawings for five days in a row.  

“It was a great opportunity, not only to be in the RHA but, to have five days’ life drawing, and to balance this I also began drawing the landscape around my home,” said Lelia.  “Life drawing was all I had done until about two years ago, but landscape drawing and life drawing are both very different, but they complement each other, and they both present different challenges, and I enjoy doing them both very much.”

Lelia travels every Thursday to the Royal Hibernian Academy for life drawing sessions.
While growing up, she spent summers on the River Shannon, and loved being outdoors, and she has continued that interest in her artwork.   
In 2013, Lelia put up her first exhibition as part of the Vintage Festival in Birr, Co. Offaly.

“I put the work up and told nobody, and got a good reaction,” said Lelia.
She has also exhibited at the Bastion Gallery, in Athlone, and at John’s bookshop, and at several others throughout the country. Lelia is modest in talking about her exhibitions, but she is acclaimed at many of these, and has sold many drawings.

While heading to draw at the side of the River Shannon, Lelia used to be accompanied by her two dogs, but sadly one was killed by a car a couple of months ago.

“My dog, Lucy is still with me, but she is lost now without her companion, and I’m on the lookout for another dog,” said Lelia.

Lelia walks from her home in Coosan to the banks of the Shannon every single day, hail rain or snow. She said she carries out quick sketching on the banks of the river, and while she sometimes finds it too cold to sit for a long time, she still continues on.

“Wind is a bigger enemy than rain, and I sit in my tent while sketching, and I do mostly landscape pictures, generally through pencil,” she said. “I use watercolour pencils, watercolour, ink and charcoal.”
She sometimes draws islands, rocks, and images of the shores, and also boats.

“There are lots of views on the lake, and I’ve spent a lot of time drawing around the Yacht Club, and around Carberry Island,” she said.

Lelia loves the area of the Shannon and looking across the Weir Wall.  
“I did a drawing while sitting under the white bridge, when the water is very low there, and I also loved the old Ritz building, which was designed by Michael Scott,” she said. “I love anything old, and there is a lifetime of work for me on the lake, and I intend to continue drawing there.”

Like many local artists, Lelia has much praise for the Luan Gallery, and said that in the days when the Luan’s venue, the Fr. Mathew Hall was empty, she thought it would make a great gallery. Lelia also has a great interest in drawing pictures of Lough Ree, and its islands.

“Up on the islands there is huge life that people have forgotten about, and I spent about a week on Inch Mor last year, and I drew all sorts of stuff, like bits of old tractors,” she said.  “The last people moved off the island in the 70s, and I wanted to capture that lost time that once existed up there.

“I work with a sheet of paper under my hand, making sure my hand is not resting on the drawing, so as to avoid smudges,” she said.
Lelia laughed and said that “not for all the tea in China,” would she go back to her past life, as an Air Hostess, and that she really enjoys working as a full-time artist.

“Flying is tough on your system, even if you are fit, and you can go from spending 10 or 12 hours on a plane, and everything is air conditioned when you are in the USA, so now I get air when I am out drawing, and I find it fantastic,” said Lelia.  “But I had a great time in Aer Lingus during those years.”

Lelia loves her hometown of Athlone, particularly the historical side of the town.
“I was born about 200 years too late, and I love the old, and am not into the modern at all,” she said laughing.  “I did a copy of an old drawing of Athlone Castle, and the original 1640s drawing is part of the collection in the National Gallery.”

Lelia said you can get away with nothing while pencil drawing, and that while it looks simple, there are no room for mistakes.

“With painting you can get away with things by using colour, but not with sketching,” said Lelia. “I would prefer to work from life, than from photographs. The great outdoors is my studio, and I risk the elements every day, seven days a week, even at this time of the year.

The new park at Coosan Point is nice, and I did a few drawings there last summer, some which sold, and I also did a lot of drawings at Greenwood, in Coosan.”
Once the weather improves Lelia plans to prepare for her next exhibition, which is bound to prove very popular.