Lesley Rumble
Visual Artist
My Portfolio
Profile
My preferred drawing medium is a graphite pencil, but there’s a tendency to rub out, so the next best is ink. I draw anything that’s in front of me on a regular basis, and attend life drawing classes to keep up the discipline of observation and recording. I play an active rôle in the Cambridge District Art Circle and the Society of East Anglian Watercolourists and am also a member of the Cambridge Drawing Society and Cambridge Open Studios.
My paintings, mostly in watercolour, are inspired by nature, the effects of weather and human activity, skies, people, animals and plants.
I trained as a Graphic Designer but was unsure that this was the right career for me. The design element of the Graphics course has remained in my system though and sometimes influences my decisions.
I looked for something more fitting my temprement and found an Art Teachers’ post-graduate course in Brighton which suited me well.
Experimenting with watercolours is a great joy that I like to share with others in my daytime art classes. I have taught adults for thirty years, and each day is different. Prior to adult education I taught art at secondary level and a few years before that I was getting to grips with general primary and infant teaching methods.
I have worked in education for all of my adult life, although not always as a teacher. My first job was as a college audio and visual aids technician, where I learnt to convert photographs to transparent slides, and designed posters and notices for the various departments.
When my children were young I helped in their play group and nursery school, and Cambridge council’s summer activities. (I learnt to balance on roller blades to assist youngsters, and became quite a dab hand at Thai cookery too!) For a few years I was assistant librarian in a local secondary school. (Books are one of my great loves so I was in heaven!)
My studio space is where I like to explore more of my own capabilities. ‘Unit 13’ is a building in Cambridge housing a collective of artists of many disciplines. I am enjoying for ever learning and experimenting.