Leila Ward

I have lived and painted on the Balearic island of Majorca since 1975. My studio in Deya, a small

mountain village on the northwest coast, is full of local landscapes and exotic paintings from my travels. In 1986 I started spending the winters in Asia and was away from October to April. From 1996 I began to spend more time on Majorca and my trips were nearer to home, for example to Norh Africa, Italy and Greece.

My paintings have two distinct styles: the landscapes in oil are much freer than the often finely detailed decorative oil pastels. I work at keeping the flatness of the surface using as many design factors as possible. I am influenced by the work of the ancients, especially that of Egypt and Persia. Moreover, I fined that I learn a lot from painters such as Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse and Dufy.

Deya is still my base; I feel at home in the countryside and the temporary studios I have made around the world have always been located in tranquil surroundings. I exhibit my latest work every summer in a gallery in the village: local landscapes and paintings following a new theme, depending on where my travels have taken me that year.