The inspiration for Victor Leger's painting is the thrill of thoroughly studying how to paint the light cascading across a hay field, or changing from moment to moment on the ripples of water in a lake. He loves the challenge of trying to recreate as accurately as possible the natural beauty of light in the environment. Victor says, “I think when people see a beautifully painted landscape they instinctively feel they are seeing in a way that is precious and new. They notice a radiance ordinarily overlooked.”

Victor has been painting since high school. He now devotes his time to plein-air oil painting entirely on site. He paints in a variety of sizes; lately he has painted on panel in order to get a higher definition in detail. The landscape he prefers to paint is the one right around his house and studio--Winchester Lake and the surrounding Litchfield County--the rural vistas of Northwestern Connecticut.
His desire to capture the contrast of aerial perspective of deep space and the high detail in the environment up close is what makes the work stand out, especially in the larger paintings. “I want the viewers to get the sense that they are right there in the environment, that the painting is like a window on a wall opening into nature.”

During his high school years in Hartford, Victor was fortunate enough to be accepted into a program at the Wadsworth Atheneum, where he attended advanced art classes every day, under the tutelage of artist Peter Waite. Following this experience, he entered his first year at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn with a full scholarship as a painting major. After five semesters he decided to try a different art school, and finished his Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984.

Currently Victor is a member of The International Guild of Realism and Artwell Gallery in Torrington, Connecticut. He is represented by Sherry French Gallery in Chelsea, NYC and Red sable Gallery and McPhee Fine Arts, both in New Jersey. His works are in various private and public collections in the Northeastern U.S. and Canada, and as far away as New Mexico. He lives in the house that MaryPat, his wife since 1986, designed and they built in 1988. They have two sons and a daughter. MaryPat is a reading teacher and Victor teaches art in the Torrington school district.

*from Vincent Van Gogh, The Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, Vol. III, letter 594, to Theo, p. 180