Garland of Rose

Leslie Hiatt is a Tampa Bay-based American painter originally from New York. She is known for creating whimsical scenes dominated by florals and mythological imagery. She is a multidisciplinary artist and performer with a background in several professional creative fields, including painting, singing, stage design, and woodworking. She has developed a high profile clientele as her unique set designs and custom pieces have been acquired by the likes of Disney, Macy’s, and FAO Schwarz in New York City. These skills often reinforce one another, adding depth to each of her creative outlets. For example, Hiatt utilizes her woodworking background to create her own custom frames to best enhance the right moods and sentiments of her paintings when presenting them to clients and public audiences.\nHer pieces are executed in a distinct mixed media technique she has developed whereby she begins with a base of acrylic paint for her backgrounds, and then switches to using oil paint for the main subject matter (in this case roses) to give them greater richness, sheen, and focus. Hiatt’s style lends itself well to mythological subject matters, guiding us through enchanted ethereal scenes from her inner world. Her work evokes several ornate eras of European art, such as the Rococo and Post-Impressionism, and captures their sumptuous elegance. She has exhibited alongside renowned artists, including Josigancio, and her work has been covered in media on television, magazines, and online.\nThis piece features her signature florals and mixed media painting techniques for a serene, dreamlike effect marked by both lightness in form and richness in color and texture.\nIt was featured in the major Flora & Fauna exhibition at Creative Pinellas in Largo, Florida. It was painted with a palette knife for added texture and Impressionistic segmentation of color that gives both added looseness and fluidity while maintaining some definition. The choice of roses also adds an additional spiritual dimension as the flower has been associated with various manifestations of the Divine Feminine throughout history. This is reinforced by the appearance of the garlands of roses to be descending from the heavens, as though from a vision.