In conversation with Elizabeth Lennie

Curatone Art & Research Journal, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2026)

• Received: March 6, 2026

• Accepted: March 12, 2026

• Published: March 16, 2026

Keywords: creative medium, painting, reading, book cover, illustration, photography, beach read, inspiration, creative journey, interview, Canada, literature, Penguin Random House, studio, artist journey.
Abstract: Photographer & storyteller Olga Bondarenko interviews a Canadian paintress Elizabeth (Libby) Lennie as a part of her Others’ Stories creative documentary series. Libby shares memories& personal details of her creative journey, as well as glimpses into what it feels like to work with big publishing houses. From acting to beach reads, Olga and Libby talk everything creative. 

Other stories & more information can be found at ouilya.com
Libby’s work can be seen at elizabethlennie.com
Images: https://www.ouilya.com/elizabethlennie

“I feel good when I paint people in water.”

O: So much of your work is about water and life that surrounds it. Could you share the backstory of this creative love relationship with the element?

E:Always wanting to be an artist, I’ve spent many hours drawing as a child. In 2002 I revisited that dream after finding some old photographs of my 3 daughters and their friends playing in the pristine water at our cottage on Rabbit Lake in Temagami 2 years prior. Shortly after that August Long Weekend one of those children developed cancer and spent her grade 7 year undergoing 16 rounds of chemo and all that entails. 

It was hard to process the innocence of that weekend at the lake through the photographs, and the aftermath of the cancer diagnosis, so I started to paint the imagery, hoping to pull the happiness out of that weekend into the present and manifest hope for her healing.
I painted a collection of those images and sold them all at my show in 2004. They resonated with people far beyond my comprehension and so I have continued to paint many versions of that weekend and consider it the basis of my practice. I feel good when I paint people in water. Today that little 12 year old girl is now a 36 year old pediatric oncology nurse in Vancouver, cured, with a daughter of her own. 

As an aside, while I was taking a course at the AGO Gallery school in 2002 and had started on the very first version of the kids on the log paintings, one of the students casually mentioned “It’s kind of like a metaphor for life. You work so hard to pull yourself up and then life throws you off balance but then you pull yourself up again.” I learned after she was one of the curators at the AGO, herself learning how to paint, and I will always cherish that comment.
Also, I love to swim!

Vespers by Elizabeth Lennie

O: Do you have a favourite getaway near the lakeside somewhere in Ontario? Wonder if a place can be the primarily influence for the direction of one’s artistic journey.

E: Our cottage on Rabbit Lake was that place for me. My husband bought it with the residuals from a series of television commercials he made in the 1980s from a man whose wife refused to go there because it was boat access and propane power. A beautiful BC cedar cottage on 150‘ of waterfront! Her baby blue cocktail outfit was left in a closet and we made people wear it for ‘incompetence in the field’ as a kind of trophy when they slipped off the dock or did something ridiculous.. I first went there in 1989.

We now have a backyard pool where I swim daily laps in the summer. Also I am PADI certified and love to dive the reefs around Cozumel. I am fascinated by the underwater world as well as people who holiday by the sea. My painting practice includes lake, pool and ocean themes. We no longer own the cottage on Rabbit Lake but it has fueled my imagination for decades.

O: How does your workflow look like depending on the season?

E: I paint all the time!

O: Tell me a bit about correlation between narrating books and painting. How did this mix come about? *Intrigued :)*

E: Oh my. This is the power of social media and online galleries. My paintings are found online and I am approached to license them. I have never promoted my work for book covers. I’ve just been lucky. I have narrated several books, most notably Margaret Atwood’s Life Before Man, so I can retire now! AI is now taking over anyways… When I was the Network Voice at TVO I was painting a lot and so I quit acting because it was impossible to memorize lines and hold space for painting imagery. Voice work was a wonderful match. All I needed was to have good reading skills in studio so it did not interfere with my imagination at the easel.

O: As I’ve been stalking your instagram since the day we met at TIW I can’t help but wonder if you’ve been getting more and more book cover commissions? Is that so?

E: I have just received another request from Penguin Randon House from an established author (not Carley) and am awaiting the contract but I have already started to sketch out some ideas. 

O: Continuing with the previous question: how do you like it? What does the process look like and what are the unexpected pitfalls of getting assignments like that? (I would assume there is a learning curve to it as well yet…)

E: I do not accept commissions in general but PRH gives me very specific instructions, palette, references to specific imagery, synopsis, access to the manuscript, and I generally paint several versions to take the pressure off getting it right the first time. I enjoy working this way and on 2 occasions have licensed 2 images for one book. I recently had a publisher approach me with an inquiry and I stated up front that I needed specific directions and never heard from them again! So this may be particular to PRH.

O: Since your career has been tied to literature in a different capacity previously, do you find this intersection of passions still inspiring? Do writers or their agents/publicists often purchase the actual painting they used for the cover?

E: Most licensed covers are existing sold paintings but 3 originals are with 2 authors. I have always loved to read and creating cover images is a wonderful marriage of those 2 strong passions. Douglas Coupland says the creative urge comes from the same source, the only difference is the medium, so writing, acting, painting, dance, music..it’s all the same, to me anyway. I feel blessed that it has found me.

O: I would love to know more about your first collaboration with [the Canadian writer] Carley Fortune. She seems like a really cool person & I inhaled her latest novel (feeling proud about having a signed copy with your amazing cobalt-y landscape!).

E: Carley is as lovely as her books. And yes she is a very cool person! I will always be grateful to Carley for approving my work for her first cover. For her first book, the art director found an image of my painting ‘August 31’ online somewhere. I had sent a photo of it to my Toronto gallery while it was still wet and they had a client who purchased it from the photo so it flew out as soon as it was dry. That never happens and so I only have an iPhone jpeg image unfortunately! The book did really well and I was asked to create the second and subsequent covers. I feel very fortunate to ride on the coattails of Carley Fortune’s good fortune! She came to my studio after her second book Meet Me At The Lake came out, so I have met her only once but was charmed by her wide open smile and lovely demeanour.

Cover art by Elizabeth Lennie

O: Working with several writers on their covers, how do you think the genre influences your art process? Do you ever get to read the sneak peek of the novel prior to starting painting, or more often than not clients commission existing canvases?

E: Mostly, my existing paintings are licensed. It’s less risky I guess, as they know where to place the type etc. I do sometimes get to read the manuscript so that’s exciting!! I have several books in other languages and although I have copies of them I will never be able to read them. Carley’s books are also translated into many languages. My paintings are primarily used to illustrate romantic summery stories with a water theme. Only one winter pond hockey image has been used as a cover.

O: Where would you like to take your work in the near future? Do you ever feel like diverting from the water theme in general?

E: Yes! I just dreamed of painting space ships! And abstracts with a lot of white! I don’t know. It’s a conundrum. I need to switch it up and I thought moving studios would speed up the process but alas,,not yet..I am an abstract artist in my heart but I struggle to start a painting without a narrative or a figure or a story... I have found traditional drawing stills to be a blessing and a curse. Often I will overpaint old paintings in an abstracted way but have never shown them. 

I studied acting at the neighbourhood Playhouse in NYC and use the repetition exercise in my painting. Say the same thing repeatedly until you are compelled to change direction. And so I paint the same imagery repeatedly hoping it will propel me into the abstract world..

O: Any exciting projects coming that you could share a bit about? (…I know Carley is working on her fifth romance.)

E: I have completed the cover for her 5th novel (it was photographed at TIW...the purple sky, 2 surfers) but I guess she’s working on her 6th novel now… I hope I get to do that one!

I am working towards a solo show at Art Gallery of Hamilton July 2026 and will have a feature at Muse Gallery September 2026.  Also Samsung has licensed 4 of my images for their Frame program. For me this is akin to commercial residuals when I was working as an actress, so same, but different, as Douglas Coupland says.. and a cosmic connection of sorts to my previous life. I no longer have to be on TV, my paintings can speak for me!

Editorial & Review Credits

Editor-in-Chief: Elizaveta Akimova
Author: Olga Bondarenko

Peer Review Board:

• Xijia Cheng (Award-winning Canadian designer and creative director featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour.): "This piece beautifully captures the intersection of memory and art, illustrating how Elizabeth Lennie’s creative process transforms personal nostalgia into vibrant, hopeful paintings. It offers a poignant look at how her various artistic lives, from acting to painting, and converge to celebrate the enduring power of family and the natural world."

• Anna Zhang (MFA (Parsons School of Design), multi-award-winning fashion designer (MUSE Gold, French Fashion Platinum), and member of the China Fashion Association.): "Olga Bondarenko’s conversation with Elizabeth Lennie offers an intimate portrait of how personal memory, place, and emotional resilience shape an artist’s visual language. Through Lennie’s reflections on water, storytelling, and book illustration, the interview reveals how creative practices across disciplines—painting, literature, and voice—can converge into a single narrative of artistic identity. The piece thoughtfully captures the quiet continuity between lived experience and artistic production."

Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2026)

This article has undergone an editorial peer review process by members of the Curatone.art Editorial Board.
How to cite: Olga Bondarenko (2026). In conversation with Elizabeth Lennie. Curatone Art & Research Journal, 1(1). Retrieved from https://curatone.art/publications/in-conversation-with-elizabeth-lennie