About

'Your talent is God’s gift to you, what you do with it is your gift back to God.' Leo Buscaglia

I am a London-based British-Hungarian contemporary artist working across painting, installation, and immersive media. My practice is centred on colour, light, material, movement, and perception, with a particular interest in the relationship between the visible and the unseen.

Creativity has been central to my life since childhood. I regard artistic ability as a gift, and my journey as an artist as an ongoing process of discovering, developing, and giving expression to that gift. After more than a decade of painting, I increasingly understand my practice not as a destination, but as a lifelong process of transformation.

At the heart of my work is an investigation of light and darkness as states of presence and absence, uncertainty and renewal, loss and hope. Rather than simply representing light, I seek to create atmospheres in which it can be sensed and experienced. Spirituality is an important part of this process—not as something I seek to illustrate literally, but as an underlying awareness of mystery, transcendence, and the possibility of transformation.

During my MA at the Royal College of Art, I began considering how painting might move beyond the traditional boundaries of the canvas and become a spatial and sensory experience. This continues to shape my practice, which encompasses oil and acrylic painting, installation, video, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR).

My current body of work, The Light Shines in the Darkness, extends painting into video, AR, and VR, considering how an image can become an immersive experience. Red and the tulip are central visual and symbolic elements. Red functions simultaneously as colour, material, and symbol, carrying associations of life, blood, passion, and the sacred. The tulip, rooted in my Hungarian cultural heritage, evokes fragility, beauty, and transformation—growth taking place beneath the surface before becoming visible.

My earlier Rainbow Collection established ideas that continue to inform my practice. The rainbow became a way of understanding colour as a language of hope, transcendence, and renewal: a meeting point between the earthly and the divine. Nature remains an important source of inspiration, particularly in its ability to evoke wonder and remind us of something greater than ourselves.

The creative process itself is a form of surrender. I allow intuition to guide the work, creating space for unexpected connections between colour, form, emotion, and memory. Alongside my fine art practice, I create painted textiles using traditional silk-painting techniques, transforming original artworks into wearable pieces. This dialogue between painting and textiles led to the launch of my London label in 2012.

Biography

Leona Lengyel paints with uninhibited vigour and freedom. She creates luminous images that vibrate with life, energy, and colour. A self-taught artist, she engages in a collaborative dance with the divine in her paintings, using acrylic on canvas to convey human emotions through abstract forms and vibrant colours.

The outcome is a compelling body of art that serves to inspire and elevate individuals, drawing them into moments of profound contemplation. Leona's paintings often become mirrors reflecting our own stories: intricate layers, vibrant hues, bold shapes, and fluid lines depict a rich tapestry of emotions and inner dialogues. Her visual voice is distinct and easily recognisable. Through her work, Leona aims to honour and celebrate the diverse journeys of human life.

Leona is based in London and was born into a family of accomplished jewellers in Hungary. Her dedication and self-taught artistic journey resulted in some of her pieces being regularly exhibited at St. Barnabas Church in Kensington, London.