About the Artist
In the September 2014 issue of Southwest Art magazine, Lester Salazar was named a national emerging artist.
Lester feels it was his good fortune to be raised in Key West, Florida by a third generation Key West family.
Key West is unusual in many ways. It has a rich and varied history of over 150 years. It’s a small and beautiful tropical island with the next largest city over 100 miles away.
Lester’s favorite pastime from a very early age (before any school) was drawing. He graduated from art school and spent many years working in the graphic design field, even teaching a college course in computer graphics. During those years he would study fine art and paint in his spare time. Eventually was able to spend full time with his paints and brushes.
His hard work has paid off. Since turning to fine art full time, he has been in many art shows, had solo exhibits and won several awards. Follow Lester on Facebook at Lesters fine art.
From July 2012 to July 2013 Lester created 366 drawings in 366 days and posted one each day to his blog. There are drawings of Key West, Las Vegas, and South Beach, as well as figure drawings and still life drawings. For the blog he created what he calls quality drawings, not quick sketches. The discipline of that exercise has been important to his development. Visit his blogsite at lestersdrawings.blogspot.com. This experience has brought more focus and intensity to his artistic approach.
Artists Statement
Paintings are a visual, emotional and creative journey for the artist. I want the viewers to share in part of that journey when they view the finished work.
We have emotional responses to things we see and the places we go. The art viewer is usually in a gallery, at a computer, or reading a book and not where the subject was seen when they view the artwork. As an artist, it’s my challenge to bring that original emotion of time and place to my two dimensional surface with my medium of choice.
To excite and satisfy the viewer I try to combine the realism of the subject with imagination.
I use mostly acrylic, oil and watercolor. Each medium has its’ own advantages and characteristics, allowing the creative resonances to flow in particular directions.