Leo McDowell's work is strongly influenced by his environment. He grew up in the North of England (his great-grandparents came from Scotland). His early paintings were of moorland scenes around his home in Ilkley, Yorkshire. After studying modern languages at the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge, and History of Art at Innsbruck University, he spent eight years in the Eastern Mediterranean, teaching and studying archaeology. He became fascinated by the remains of the ancient civilizations of The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines. He subsequently returned to England, but continued to travel widely in the Mediterranean, particularly in Italy and Spain.
The images are painted in a style which conveys reality without realism. The relationships and relative proportions of the images are deliberately distorted and the perspective of the picture plane is flattened so that the pictures are read vertically. The main quality which emerges is that of a poetic transformation of what is seen. McDowell's work is a delight to the eye and a challenge to the imagination.
Leo McDowell's recent works include interiors, figurative, still life and landscape paintings. McDowell exhibits regularly in London, New York, Paris and Tokyo, and his work is to be found in numerous private collections including that of HRH Prince Charles.
