Welcome to Lee Studio,

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

Leslie's
Armchair Travel

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“Up before coffee and breakfast to get Whitney and Jessie to the train in Achnasheen for them to go to Inverness for the day while the rest of us drive into the countryside to see the east coast. We get no further than nearby Dornoch. The beach is beautiful and wild and windy, with tall grasses flying and rippling. The countryside changes dramatically from the highlands and mountains to broad rolling hills with lochs, cultivated fields, green grass, and trees everywhere. Everything is lush green, and almost every house has roses climbing and a colorful garden in a small walled front yard.” —excerpt and image from Six Degrees of Latitude, Travel Tales of Scotland and Ireland (2003 06 20 Scotland, Loch Torridon, The Stream from Liathach) https://www.leestudiotc.com/books/products/six-degrees-of-latitude-travel-tales-of-scotland-and-ireland.html #irelandtravel #traveljournal #celtic #scotland #irelandmaps #artwork
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“Our next stop was to visit Castledonovan. We wandered north through side roads of great beauty to the castle ruins. A lovely walk wound down past the castle car park. The relic of the castle perched on an outcrop not far from the River Ilen that forms the east side of the Aghadown Peninsula. Only the tower remains. The story is that Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers in the late 1640s severely damaged the castle to retaliate against the O’Donovans for joining the Royal Stuart Catholic side. It has been a relic since then.” —excerpt from The Hole Made By a Waterfall: Ireland https://www.leestudiotc.com/books/products/the-hole-made-by-a-waterfall.html #ireland #traveljournal #theholemadebyawaterfall #celtic #artwork
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“We then went up to the ‘Field of Slaughter’ where legend says the Tuatha (pronounced too-ta) de Danaan and the Fir Bolg of legend engaged in one of the two largest battles on Irish soil. He wasn’t sure who won or lost, but the retreat was up the mountain. I wondered if this was the battle that forced the early people of Ireland, the Tuatha de Danaan, underground where they continued to live forever. I’ll check to see what the legends say. The field was creepy, or my feelings were. Arrowheads and spear heads still push up out of the bog, Sean said.” —excerpt from The Hole Made By a Waterfall: Ireland https://www.leestudiotc.com/books/products/the-hole-made-by-a-waterfall.html #ireland #irelandmaps #traveljournal #travelblog #artwork
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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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