Lee Nowell-Wilson is a Baltimore based artist creating incredible drawing that combine realistic renderings, crisp linework, and loose smudges to create dynamic portraits of motherhood.
Drawing is a slow and arduous labour of love, and that labour is apparent in the incredible attention to detail Nowell-Wilson displays throughout her work. This commitment to realistic depiction, with individually penned eyelashes pressing together from fatigue and the cupid's bow of a baby's plump lip lifting off the page, acts as a striking representation of maternal love and the weight it carries. Additionally, her subjects are physically burdened, whether it be with a bundle of laundry of a bundle of joy. These highly finished areas of drawing contrast with darky, messy mark making and unfinished contours that also appear on her pages. This speaks loudly of the unbalanced shifting of energy and focus from self to child during this season of life.
The act of being a mother is often considered a universal experience, yet Nowell-Wilson highlights the truth to each individual experience and the strength required to bear this load with her poetic body of work.
