Lesley Shortt is a Wiltshire based artist who specialises in watercolour illustrations that capture people, animals, plants, and everyday objects. Lesley is particularly interested in wordplay and the translation of phrases and metaphors into visual imagery, where her detailed, observational and often humorous work make unexpected connections between things.

Lesley trained as an illustrator at Southend College of Art and Hornsey College of Art and has worked as a freelance illustrator ever since. Influenced by the small details of everyday life, she is drawn to creating pictures that carry a narrative and clarification.

Lesley's work has been exhibited nationally and sold as giclée prints. She continues to develop new bodies of work from her studio in Bishops Cannings.

This is a watercolour illustration of a young French woman looking down at her shoes. Each shoe has a little cauliflower decoration as a play on words for the French endearment of calling a child “my little cauli” / “ma petit chou-fleur”. She stands on French cobbles wearing a Breton top, French navy skirt, and beret.