"Flat White on the way ma'am” - Plein-Air'ing with Artist Shelley Levy
By Nina Paiva
Shelley Levy (Artist)
Photograph by Nina Paiva
Flat white on the way ma’am is the last text I receive from Shelley as I’m making my way down the street to meet her at her local coffee fix. She is an artist and a teacher with a passion for people. I’m greeted by her bright smile and an assortment of drawings, paintings and watercolours strewn out on the table moments before my coffee arrives and our conversation takes flight.
“My real fascination is people… you find someone and there’s just a connection and you ask yourself what’s their story?”
Shelley Levy (watercolour)
Photograph by Nina Paiva
Living in Los Angeles and the United Kingdom, Shelley has seen her fair share of interesting characters, but location has never stopped her from exploring. During the pandemic, she and her students have travelled the world virtually, drawing and ‘visiting’ places as far as Turkey and Italy from the comfort of their own homes. By bringing together images and sounds from these different places, the group built a narrative which enabled them to travel sketch without really going anywhere (you can view these TravelSketch classes via her website, Instagram, and Facebook).
“I love a narrative about anything, it makes it come alive. ”
Shelley’s practice has not always been or looked like what it is today. Through her professional life, she has worked as a muralist.
She tells me of her first artwork: the result of her friend's mother asking her if she wanted to be an artist. When her obvious answer was, ‘yes,’ Shelley was tasked with painting Bougainville’s on a mirror. It didn’t matter to Shelley that she had little or no idea what these looked like.
If you met her you’d understand: when she puts her mind to it she will find a way to succeed.
Shelley Levy (Illustration, Iris Apfel)
Photograph by Nina Paiva
Shelley Levy (Artist)
Photograph by Nina Paiva
Illustration by Shelley Levy
Photograph by Nina Paiva
Shelley’s personality extends past the small table where we sit and, as the natural conversationalist that she is, I find myself laughing at every other word she says. There is no shortage of stories to tell, and with a practice that entails capturing, drawing and observing intriguing people - or as she puts it “with a lot of soul in their face” - this should come as no surprise.
Perhaps the most poignant point in her career, thus far, is marked by her encounter and year spent with the grumpy old man, as she fondly refers to him - an oil painter she met in LA and convinced to mentor her on the promise that she would create 10 paintings and 20 drawings a week (for which she received no praise). Yet, his challenging artistic proposal motivated the creativity that propels her forward to this day.
Shelley Levy (Artist)
Photograph by Nina Paiva
It’s not always smooth-sailing when drawing people. Shelley recounts moments when her chosen subjects have approached her unhappily about becoming the focus of a drawing, sometimes demanding money in return for having been a model unawares.
Yet, there are times where this method has brought happiness to others through new-found friends, acquaintances and encounters. There is a quiet, unspoken connection between artist and subject when eyes lock across a location (restaurant, park etc.) before offering a conversation past this first initial encounter, gaze or look. As individuals with our own stories, we can never know how our interactions might affect or be affected.
Creative nosiness is at the root of her practice, and the possibilities are endless. Looking through her work we play a game of what were they saying? with the characters she’s portrayed. Shelley loves a narrative, her art is a form of storytelling where anyone could decide what is happening in that moment.
“Everybody walks out their front door every day with their own stories and we don’t know what their story is”
Though there will never be a shortage of fascinating subjects to paint and draw, Shelley has faced ‘an old enemy’ more than once: creative block.
There’s no answer to what wrenches her back into the flow. However, for Shelley, there is one absolute creative truth that has remained constant throughout her life: art has saved her more than once.
This is the only pause we take in our conversation. She looks me dead in the eye and says, “I know you know.” I can’t lie. I have goosebumps rippling down my arms. Creativity is an escape and an output we are lucky to have and share in - it’ll never leave you. And so, I’ll end this reflection with these words Shelley shared with me, long after my coffee had been finished and our conversation had continued effortlessly:
Shelley Levy (Watercolour)
Photograph by Nina Paiva
“Art has saved me every single time in my life… it’s changed my life and I think I am so grateful that I am lucky enough to be an artist because it’s the only thing I’ve ever really wanted to do with my entire life.”
