Date: Fri 16-Feb-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: BILLB

Illustration: C

Location: A-9

Quick Words:

Hudson-Tolles-Grey-Horse

Full Text:

(feature on artist Leslie Hudson-Tolles, 2/16/96)

Artist and Teacher: Leslie Hudson-Tolles Has Her First One-Woman Show

Beginning February 18 At Grey Horse Gallery

(with photos)

By Bill Brassard, Jr

Leslie Hudson-Tolles has been part of Newtown's equestrian and arts

communities for many years. She has often combined these two passions in her

drawings and paintings, but to define Ms Hudson-Tolles as an equine artist is

too limiting.

Those who attend the artist's first one-woman show at the Grey Horse Gallery

in Sandy Hook will find a surprising diversity of subject and media. She is

most fascinated by portraiture, and many of her works are of people or

animals, or both together. She believes that a portrait allows her to best

capture an individual's essence.

Ms Hudson-Tolles has been working lately with colored pencils on acid-free

matte or colored boards. Another favorite medium is the mono print over

etching, which involves selectively removing ink from a metal plate to create

an image. She likes this process because it gives her "the control of a good

illustration and spontaneity of a painting."

Although she has participated in group exhibitions before, Ms Hudson-Tolles

has never had so much of her work on display at once. Her commissioned work

tends to be of a private nature between herself and her clients and has not

been widely seen.

In preparation for this exhibit, the artist has been gathering a variety of

her art, which includes her early oil work in addition to the newer colored

pencil drawings and etchings. The show will kick off with a reception on

February 18 at the Grey Horse Gallery.

"I always said that I wanted to have a one-woman show before my forty-fifth

birthday and I'm just going to make it," said Ms Hudson-Tolles, who will turn

that age the day after the show opens.

Ms Hudson-Tolles has entered her work in many area art shows. She placed first

in the graphics category at last year's SCAN juried show, and took a second

place in portraiture at the '94 Fall Festival of Arts in Bethel. She holds a

BS in art education from the University of Bridgeport and a master's from

Southern Connecticut State University. For the past three years she has been

working in Richard Kenerson's colored pencil workshop every Saturday morning

at the Methodist Church.

Ms Hudson-Tolles juggles a busy schedule filled with work and family

obligations to make time to pursue her art. She is a full-time art teacher at

Veterans Park Elementary School in Ridgefield, which is the reason the exhibit

will be titled, "Art of the Teacher - Teacher of Art." In 1991, she was named

Connecticut's Art Educator of the Year by the Connecticut Art Education

Association.

She also has two very active daughters, Lindsay, 10, and Alyssa, 8, plus four

Morgan horses. One of her favorites is Hi-Vale Mr Ben, a 27-year-old carriage

horse that has driven many area brides to their weddings.

"After getting home from school and cleaning the barn at night, I try to

average about 2 hours with my art," she said. "Now that the girls are old

enough to help with the barn chores, it's a little easier."

Ms Hudson-Tolles donates many of her works to non-profit organizations to be

sold at fund raisers. An etching of her Morgan gelding, Tolhom Maynson, was

purchased at a Pegasus Therapeutic Riding benefit in Westport. "Clea Newman

bought it," said Ms Hudson-Tolles. "She said that few artists do horse's eyes

well, but that I had gotten it right. Horses' pupils have an almost horizontal

cloud-like formation. Many people draw them like a dog's eye and they are not

like that at all."

For Ms Hudson-Tolles, quality is in the details. "To draw horses you have to

live with horses . . . spend time grooming them," she said. "It's the same

with other subjects, too. I could never have drawn children well before I had

my own. You watch them. You watch them sleeping."

Ms Hudson-Tolles said she is first and foremost a portrait artist. "It's the

individual that intrigues me, whether it's a person or an animal," she said.

"It starts with a feeling. When you turn out a horse, she may run for the

sheer joy of it. You try to capture that feeling. That's what starts a drawing

for me."

When her children were younger, Ms Hudson-Tolles did not have much time to

paint or draw, so she took photographs of her favorite subjects instead. Now

she is using that library of photos for ideas. She still takes photographs in

order to get close to her subject, and when she has a commission she spends

time getting to know the individual, or the animal through its owners, before

actually sitting down to work.

Ms Hudson-Tolles was invited to do the show by Darryl Ifkovic, owner of Grey

Horse Gallery, and a fellow horsewoman. "It's very exciting to have a show and

very scary," said the artist.

The reception on Sunday, February 18, will run from 2-5 pm. "Art of the

Teacher - Teacher of Art" will have about 30 pieces in it, and some will be

for sale. It will continue into March. Grey Horse Gallery is located at 4

Washington Street in Sandy Hook center at the historic Post Office building.

It is open 10 am-5 pm Tuesday through Saturday.