Lesley Burr RGI

Lesley Burr is a graduate of Glasgow School of Art (1981 to 1984) and post-graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (1985 to 1986). She is one of the “Glasgow Girls” involved in the resurgence of figurative Art coming out of Glasgow in the 1980s. She seeks her inspiration from her environment and landscape with many of her works displaying an intimate and profound sensitivity to the inter-relationship one has with their environment. She says "Symbolic landscapes form the central focus of my work. The paintings are inspired by mountains, landscape and the processes of nature, often suggesting or exploring our human relationship with the world. Recurring themes are used such as family, unusual land-forms, birds, trees, creating a metaphorical visual world. There is a spacious simplicity along with a vibrant love of colour."

Lesley was recently elected a member of the Royal Glasgow Institute in 2026, and was selected by the Friends of Scott Polar Research Institute as the 2019 Arctic artist in residence to the Canadian arctic. She has exhibited with Compass Gallery, Glasgow, since she graduated and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Scotland and further afield, including 'Heart of an Island' in 1995 and 'New Landscapes' in 2009 both at Compass Gallery. She has won various awards including Strathclyde Regional Development Grant; The Laing Art Competition; Shetland Arts Trust Grant; Ruth Davidson Memorial Scholarship; Scottish Arts Council Visual Artists Development Grant; John Goudie Printmaking Prize; Hi-Arts Visual Artists Development Grant. She has had a number of public commissions and is in many private collections throughout the UK.