Meet our Artists

Abstract in Asheville celebrates the freedom of seeing differently
Opening Night: Oct 9, 2026 | 5-8 PM
Exhibit: Oct 9, 2026 – January 3, 2027

"When the Time Came," 8"x8", oil & cold wax, $350
"When the Time Came," 8"x8", oil & cold wax, $350

Lesley Riley

Website: https://www.LesleyRiley.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lesley.riley.art/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lrileyart

Lesley Riley is a mixed-media artist, author, and longtime educator whose current work centers on abstract painting in oil and cold wax. After decades of working across fiber, photography, printmaking, and mixed media, she has returned to painting, bringing with her a lifelong fascination with layering, surface, and the marks left by time.

Working intuitively, Riley builds, obscures, scrapes, and excavates her surfaces, allowing earlier colors and marks to remain as fragments of visual memory. Her intimate paintings explore age, impermanence, light, and the quiet beauty of worn surfaces.

Riley is the author of ten books on art and creativity and spent more than 25 years teaching artists nationally and internationally. Discover more at Further to Fly, her weekly Substack post. She lives and works in the mountains of Maryland.

"Apricot Blush Into Void I–III (triptych)" 76" × 36" inches installed; three 24 × 36-inch panels with 2-inch spacing, Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, framed, Three framed panels sold as a complete set $3600

Cynthia Perrino

"Apricot Blush Into Void I–III (triptych)" 76" × 36" inches installed; three 24 × 36-inch panels with 2-inch spacing, Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, framed, Three framed panels sold as a complete set $3600

Meet the Artist