Leisa Collins believes that art is a powerful means of communication and a potent weapon to bring about change. A successful working artist, she specializes in architectural art. Leisa travels extensively, is always involved in community art projects, and loves helping other artists fulfill their artistic passion by sharing her experience about the business side of the art world.
Leisa Collins, a native of New Zealand, has carved a unique niche for herself as an acclaimed architectural artist. Passionate about architecture and travel, she rejected the confines of formal art training and instead, honed her craft while journeying the world.
Eventually settling in the United States, Collins became interested in the people and cultures that defined architecture throughout the country’s history. She was inspired to drive from coast to coast, creating original paintings of homes that inspired her in every state. She selected 650 of these works of art — as well as the fascinating stories behind many of them — to share with readers in her coffee table book, Hand-Painted Homes: An Architectural Artist’s Pen and Watercolor Journey Across America (May 2021). This vivid and captivating coffee table book explores architectural styles in all fifty states, plus the nation’s capital.
In 2013, she established the Leisa Collins Historic Preservation Award to pay tribute to exceptional individuals committed to saving and restoring old buildings across the country.
Collins’ work has been seen in many publications such as The New York Times, Huffington Post and Los Angeles Times. Due to her fine eye toward detail and her deep respect and curiosity about the stories behind each home, Collins’ commissioned house portraits are always in high demand.
Nomads at heart, Collins and her husband have lived in all regions of the USA, and currently reside in St. Louis, MO. However, they are always looking for their next adventure.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Art is a powerful means of communication and is therefore a potent weapon to bring about change. Interaction with people and the environment is my artistic inspiration and stimulation. It’s about getting across a message, an emotion, or envisioning a better tomorrow. Art for me is something that goes far beyond the studio and gallery walls. It’s about being intensely interested in the beauty and ugliness of everything surrounding one. This then allows me to create art that others can find interesting.
MISSION STATEMENT
My mission is conserving communities and culture through my art. Any building with history has a story and once it is destroyed it is lost forever. My goal is to leave a legacy that will help tell these stories in every painting and with each brushstroke. So that future generations may also value the architectural treasures surrounding us and more importantly, the people who made them so.