Lesley Banks was born in 1962 in Oxford, the family moving back to Scotland soon after. She trained at Glasgow School of Art in the Drawing and Painting Department tutored by Barbara Rae and Jack Knox.
Her work is informed by a skill based classical training in observation painting and drawing which is evident in her figurative interiors and more recent canal and urban landscape paintings.
With a keen interest and knowledge of art history there is a significant reference in her work to painters such as Edward Hooper and Vermeer albeit from a female perspective. The recipient of numerous awards, her work is held in several public collections including Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow.
'You have a skill in making the common domestic episode seem lit up with utopian pleasures, which remind us to cherish those moments of ease and tranquility in the everyday whirl.'
Professor Bridget Fowler, private correspondance 2023
'It is not the highly dramatic or publicly important occasions in life that are revelant to her art. Similar to the Flemish Masters or French Intimists, she seeks out the quintessential ordinariness of day to day existence - domestic interiors, gardens through windows, people transfixed by meditative boredom. Yet in true Baudelairian fashion she turns the tangential experiences of modern life into the stuff of poetry.'
Bill Hare,Galleries 1998
EDUCATION
1980-84 Glasgow School of Art
RESIDENCES
2016 - 2019
Artist in Residence at Scottish Canals, Gongoozler Project.
1999
Artist in Residence at Edinburgh Zoo, Urban Landscape Project.
Pod Artist 'Landscape Artist of the Year' on TV 2025
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020
Landscapes of Water, Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life
2019
Gongoozler, Lillie Art Gallery, Glasgow
2018
Gongoozler, Eden Court, Inverness
2017
'Gongoozler' Park Gallery, Falkirk
2014
Breathing Spaces, Compass Gallery Glasgow
2013
Beyond the Grand Canal, Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum
2012
Beyond the Grand Canal, Heartbreak Gallery, London
2009
25 year Retrospective, Park Gallery, Falkirk
2006
Alexander's Dark Band, Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow
2001
Arlington Revisited, Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow
From Glasgow to San Gimignano, Bohun Gallery, Henley on Thames
The Bride Stripped Bare, The Edinburgh Gallery
1999
Urban Zoo Residency at Edinburgh Zoo
1998
Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow
1997
Royal Overseas League Edinburgh and London
The Substation Gallery, Singapore
1995
Beaux Art, Bath
1994
Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow
Portland Gallery, London
1991
Compass Gallery, Glasgow
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Royal Scottish Academy 198th Annual Exhibition
London Art Fair, Gerber Fine Art Stand
2023
Objects of Desire, Callendar House, Falkirk
ING Discerning Eye
Jackson's Art Prize, longlisted
SWA The Society of Women Artists, Mall Galleries, London
Scottish Landscape Awards, longlisted
2022
Scottish Portrait Awards
Inspired, Fidra Fine Art, Gullane
2021
Art in Mind, Glasgow Print Studio
2020
21st Century Women, The Backdoor Gallery , Clydebank
2013
Women Painting Women, Art Exposure Gallery, Glasgow
Still Spaces, Compass Gallery, Glasgow
2012
Love Is, Heartbreak Gallery, London
2010
Venice Exhibition, Blackheath Gallery, London
2006
ING Discerning Eye
2007
Body Language, GOMA, Glasgow
Five Lads and a Lassie, Old Lyme, Connecticut
1995
BP Portrait Competition, London
1993
BP Portrait Competition, London
1990
Five Girls from Glasgow, Compass Gallery, Glasgow
SELECTED AWARDS
2024
The Knox Award, Paisley Art Institute Annual Exhibition
2017
Paisley Drawing Competion, Walker Laird Prize
2015
Open Project Funding Creative Scotland
2012
Small Painting prize, Paisley Art Institute Annual Exhibition
2009
Hope Scott Trust Award
2008
ING Discerning Eye, Scottish Prize
1999
Scottish Arts Council Award
1997
Royal Glasgow Institute, The Britannia Life Lord Provost Prize
1996
Leverhulm Trust Research Award
1995
Hope Scott Trust Award
Laing Landscape Award
Royal Overseas League, Scottish Prize
1991
Scotland on Sunday Paper Boat Awards Mayfest.
1989
The Spectator, Adam and co, " An Artist's Life" 3rd prize
1988
The Spectator, Adam and co, "Three Cities" 2nd Prize
1985
Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award
WORK IN PUBLIC COLLECTION
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Perth Museum and Art Gallery
Lillie Museum and Art Gallery
Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery
Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery
University of Strathclyde
Scottish Canals
Leicester Schools Collection
East Dunbartonshire Council
Falkirk Council Collection