Hester Lessard practiced and exhibited as a landscape and figurative painter in Nova Scotia for many years before setting aside her brushes to pursue an academic career on the West Coast. When she returned to painting, it was the luminosity of West Coast light and the challenge of working abstractly that became her primary focus. She works mainly in oil and cold wax. She is drawn to the way wax medium facilitates layering with thin veils of colour, permits the artist to ‘excavate’ underlying layers, and opens up a range of mark making and patterning possibilities. Her work shimmers with light, plays with blurred and sharpened edges, and explores colour harmonies and disharmonies inspired by coastal geographies.