Welcome to Lee Studio,

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

Leslie's
Armchair Travel

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“We traveled down the Great Glen past Loch Ness to the Isle of Skye. At the southern end, we stopped to tour the beautiful Eileen Donan Castle at the foot of the new bridge linking the island to the mainland. The Isle of Skye is the largest of the islands in the chain of islands along the west coast called the Inner Hebrides. We arrived at the Kinloch Lodge by 4:00 p.m., in time to unpack and meet in the lounge before dinner.” —excerpt and image from Six Degrees of Latitude, Travel Tales of Scotland and Ireland (2014 09 19 Scotland Isle of Skye, Kinloch Lodge, Doorway) https://www.leestudiotc.com/books/products/six-degrees-of-latitude-travel-tales-of-scotland-and-ireland.html #scotland #kinlochlodge #traveljournal #isleofskye #artwork #leestudio
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“We’re off by car to Loch Carron, which has a bank. Then north to see the train station, back to cross the Applecross Peninsula via the Bealach-na Ba (this means “cow path”), a steep, hairpin-twisting, one-lane road across some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere. We learned that the road has the steepest gradient of any road in the UK, going from sea level to two thousand feet in elevation. And that is how the inhabitants drove the cattle across in the old days! We took a break for lunch in Applecross and saw the former monastery there from circa seventh century. The people were St. Maelrubhas from Northern Ireland. They lasted one hundred to one hundred fifty years before the Vikings wiped them out.” —image and excerpt from Six Degrees of Latitude, Travel Tales of Scotland and Ireland (2003 06 16 Scotland, Wester Ross, The Applecross Pub) https://www.leestudiotc.com/books/products/six-degrees-of-latitude-travel-tales-of-scotland-and-ireland.html #scotland #traveljournal #applecrosspub #westerross #artwork #leestudio
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“We walked one kilometer to town through the cemetery ruins across the street, which dropped steeply from the road down to the shore of the bay, then had lunch at Bunratty’s, and walked back home. I hate to admit that the steepness of the walk back up winded me.” —excerpt and image from The Hole Made by a Waterfall, Ireland (1. 2019 05 15 Ireland, County Cork, Schull, Abandoned Church, 2. 2019 04 18, Ireland, Schull, at Bunratty’s for chowder) https://www.leestudiotc.com/books/products/the-hole-made-by-a-waterfall.html #ireland #countycork #traveljournal #abandonedchurch #artwork #bunrattys
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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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