Irene Lesley Hope Main was born in Glasgow. She studied Drawing and Painting at the Glasgow School of Art from 1976 until graduating in 1980 (under Donaldson, Robertson, Shanks and Rae), the Patrick Allan-Fraser School of Art at Hospitalfield to which she won a scholarship, and in Italy. She has travelled extensively throughout Europe, America and Africa and has exhibited widely in one-person and group exhibitions in the United Kingdom, Europe and America. She was a full-time painter, a winner of the Hiram Walker Award and the Lauder Award, and had studios in Glasgow, Athens and Brodick, Isle of Arran.

Lesley Main was strongly influenced by the Scottish Colourists (in particular, J. D. Fergusson) and the Glasgow School, with its emphasis on light and shade, use of colour and sensuous handling of paint, and traditional pursuit of academic excellence.

Her great love of nature underpins her joie de vivre and essential optimism, of which her work is a direct and fluent complement and statement.

Lesley Main's work is well-known, and is in public and private collections world- wide, including those of:

H.R.H. Diana, Princess of Wales;

Allied Irish Bank; Argyll Group; Australian Capital Equity;

Bank of Ireland; British Petroleum; Charterhouse Development Capital; Citicorp Scrimgeour Vickers International; Clyde Port Authority; Commonwealth Development Corporation; Robert Fleming Holdings; Henry Ford Foundation; G. K. Goh; Gouldens; Iomart Group;

Lam Soon Group; Lanitis Development; Lithgow Group; John Makepeace; Mercury Asset Management; Metropole Group; Prudential Corporation; BWD Rensburg; Royal Bank of Scotland; Save and Prosper; Scottish Arts Council; Herbert Smith; South African Department of Foreign Affairs; Standard Life; Deloitte Touche; University of Strathclyde; Warwick Arts Trust; Yarrow.

Selected Galleries - Solo and Group Exhibitions:

RA, RSA, RGI ,SSA, SSWA,GSWA.

Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London; Bruton Gallery, Bath; Calton Gallery, Edinburgh; Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh and Bath; Clarges Gallery, London; Collins Gallery, Strathclyde University, Glasgow; Compass Gallery, Glasgow; Conservation Management, London; Courcoux and Courcoux Contemporary Art, Hampshire; Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow;. Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London; Ewan Mundy Fine Art, Glasgow; Falle Fine Art, Jersey; The Fine Art Society, London, Glasgow and Edinburgh; Flying Colours, London; Hanover Fine Arts, Edinburgh; Igal Yawetz, London; Jonathan Poole, London; Main Fine Art, Glasgow; Malcolm Innes Gallery, London and Edinburgh; Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff; Mercury Gallery, London and Edinburgh; Miles Lamdin Gallery, London; Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; Portland Gallery, London; Soloman Gallery, London; The Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh; William Hardie Gallery, Glasgow.

Regional

Paul Hayes Gallery, Auchterarder; Maclaurin Gallery, Ayr; Rozelle House, Ayr; McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock; Macaulay Gallery, Stenton; Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum; Paisley Museum and Art Galleries; Peter Hedley Gallery, Dorset.

Art Fairs

The Bath Art Fair; The London International Art Fair, Olympia; The 20th Century Art Fair, The Royal College of Art; The Harrogate Art Fair; The Dublin Art Fair; The York Art Fair; The Edinburgh Art Fair; The Glasgow Art Fair.

International

Tom Robinson-Okane Galleries, The University of Houston, Texas; Open Circle, Nürnberg, Germany; The Martin Dowds Gallery, Hong Kong; AGS Fine Art, New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Oregon, Florida, Toronto.