Welcome to Lee Studio,

Inside you will find Leslie's Travel Companion books & artwork.

Leslie's
Armchair Travel

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Friday 31 March 2023 The Flax Cottage, Castlewellan To Belfast “George, Viv, and I drove to Belfast to tour the Titanic Exhibit. The extraordinary building that houses the museum sits on the site where the great ship was built next to its sister ship, Olympia. The shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff, built two slips side by side the length of four city blocks to house the construction. The company had six other ships in process in Belfast as well. It’s hard to imagine the impact of designing and building these two colossal ships had on the city. The 884 feet long gantries for Olympia and Titanic loomed over the skyline at a whopping 228 feet tall, the height of a twenty-two-story building. To put the length in perspective, imagine the length of two and a half football fields end to end.” —Excerpt and images from Leslie’s Travel Companion Journal: 2023 Ireland and Scotland, (IMG - 4979) https://www.leestudiotc.com/ #Ireland #Northern Ireland #DiscoverIreland #celtic #Belfast #Titanic #traveljournal #artwork #LeeStudio
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Thursday 30 March 2023, continued The Flax Cottage, Ballywillwill Northern Ireland “We walked up the old lane rutted by centuries of Nixon wagon wheels. Tall hedgerows of gorse, wild flowers, and native trees walled the path. Then we meandered through the ash tree plantation studded with native trees and three chestnuts in memory of neighbors who died tragically. We followed the little brook back to the retting ponds, big barns, and house. After our welcome tour, we settled right in to deep conversation at the table in the heart of the kitchen in front of the ever-warming Aga range where patio doors open to the side yard that flanks the original small barn. I am so grateful and fortunate to have found these delightful distant cousins who feel so much like close family now. Viv made stew and riced potatoes. Well-fed, we sat talking until late.” —Excerpt and images from Leslie’s Travel Companion Journal: 2023 Ireland and Scotland, (The Flax Cottage original barn -IMG_5079) https://www.leestudiotc.com/ #Ireland #Northern Ireland #DiscoverIreland #celtic #Ballywillwill #traveljournal #artwork #LeeStudio
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Thursday 30 March 2023 From Kinsale, Ireland to Ballywillwill, Castlewellan, Northern Ireland “It was a relief to not drive five and a half hours by myself to Northern Ireland; instead, I hired a car and driver. We talked the whole way there—dogs, my work, interspecies communication. At last, we arrived to the thirty-five acres of the old family farm where they grew flax and retted it for lacemaking for hundreds of years. My direct relative, George Nixon from Ballywillwill, married the girl next door, Mary Radcliffe, and emigrated to the US in 1810. My book, "We Are the Land, Ireland," recounts the tale of my sisters and me searching for our Irish roots and finding our Scotch-Irish (Ulster-Irish) relatives, George and Vivienne Nixon. They’ve totally refreshed and rebuilt the Flax Cottage and property during their “retirement”. I’m excited to see all they have accomplished in the last three years, and to sit in their kitchen, share our news and bask in the flow of kinship.” —Excerpt from Leslie’s Travel Companion Journal: 2023 Ireland and Scotland, (2019 05 17 Northern Ireland, County Down, near Castlewellan, Ballywillwill Map) https://www.leestudiotc.com/ #Ireland #CountyCork #Kinsale #Ballywillwill #DiscoverIreland #celtic #traveljournal #artwork #LeeStudio
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About the Author

After a lifetime of writing, Leslie has decided that it’s time to share. She is now publishing her travel journals, non-fiction, poetry, and essays which will be available for purchase here on the Lee Studio website, at bookstores, and on the web. Her most recent project has been to edit thirty illustrated travel journals as a series called Leslie’s Travel Companions, referring to the little black book and tiny paint kit that she carried everywhere in her pocket.

In 2020, Lee completed Book Two of the Travel Companion series, Leslie’s Field Guide to Ireland, a pocket-sized reference to the history and culture of the land along with her favorite sites of interest in Ireland. It’s meant to be carried, referred to, and written in until it becomes a cherished memento of the trip itself. Book One, We Are the Land, Ireland, published in 2019, began with a search for understanding her Irish ancestry and ended on a romping road trip with her sisters across the Emerald Isle that brought them to a surprise conclusion.

Leslie wrote the poem, “Sacred Space” in 2014 to accompany the beautiful architectural photography of the iconic Michigan home, Pine Hollow, in her book Sacred Space, Pine Hollow. Reaching deep in the past to her first book, Lee edited and authored, Backcountry Ranger, the Diaries and Photographs of Norton Pearl in Glacier National Park 1910-1913 while cozied in her tiny home-built cabin on the edge of Torch Lake, Michigan beginning in 1976 and finally publishing in 1994.

Lee lives in northern Michigan where she raised her family. She’s a lover of nature, travel, history, genetic ancestry, linguistics, and her home on the Great Lakes. Always hoping for one last adventure, she’s holding off on completing her memoir.

“I was completely charmed by this insightful and heartfelt portrait of Ireland. Leslie Lee’s descriptions of the people she met and the places she visited are so well written, so immediate, that I felt like I was there.” Jerry Dennis, Michigan Author

About the Artist

Not formally trained in art, Leslie began to draw when she traveled as a way to see more clearly what was around her. She carried a notebook, pen and tiny paint kit instead of a camera, and when everyone else was clicking away, she whipped out her kit and painted—fast. The simplicity of her paint palette and the speed with which she painted has become her signature style.

Northwest Lower Michigan defines her. She considers herself part of the landscape among the bluestems and butterfly weed, beneath the cedars, willows, and maple trees. The wind of the woods and water speak her language and sing the songs of her childhood. How will a visitor know us if we don’t know who we are? How will we venture out in the world if we have nothing of ourselves to offer? If we treasure our origins, we take these gifts out to the world as we travel, and come home again, enriched twice over. Wherever we are, every day, we create the story and the adventure of our lives. Here are her favorite stories and drawings.

After a lifetime of writing and painting in the margins of work and family, now semi-retired, Leslie has made it a priority to share. Thirty years of travel journals and paintings have been dusted off, edited, and excerpted and will be appearing here on her website as books, fine art, folded note cards and postcards, and other gifts and products for sale.

Leslie's Note Cards

All of our fine art reproductions use archival inks and paper and are suitable for framing. Giclee is another term for this process. The color and quality of the reproductions are so impeccable, it’s difficult to tell they’re not the originals until you turn them over to read the printed details of the image. Framed, they look great on the wall and make wonderful gifts.

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Leslie's Artwork

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