Bio
Lelia Henry is a visual artist from Westmeath. She holds an MA in Art and Process from Crawford College of Art, graduating in 2020. She began her art career in 2006. The following year, she enrolled on a BA in Visual Art at IADT, and also completed the Certificate in Drawing and Visual Investigation at NCAD. In 2010, she travelled to Florence, to study drawing at the Florence Academy of Art. On her return, she continued to take drawing and painting classes at the RHA, and she began exhibiting in 2014.
Her practice is drawing based, working mainly in charcoal. Her work explores neglected and overlooked elements of the rural landscape, examining the relationship between these neglected spaces, and the enduring impact of human activity. Her concern for the loss of the natural world drives her to create meticulously rendered drawings, through which she offers the viewer a quiet space for reflection in which to consider our relationship to our world around us.
She has won a number of awards, including the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award and Arts Council Agility Awards. In 2017, she won Irish Landscape Artist of the Year at the National Open Art Competition, London. She has exhibited at the RHA, the RUA, Mall Galleries, London, and Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. In 2026, she will take part in a show of contemporary drawing at Luan Gallery, Athlone. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the OPW.
The artist would like to thank Susan Kellett at Enniscoe House and Tom Gorman at Westport House for access to the grounds at both houses.
Images: 01. Lelia Henry, Merrows, 2025, Charcoal on paper, Diptych, 300 x 280cm, Photography Dickon Whitehead, Image courtesy of the artist.
02. Lelia Henry, Danú, 2025, Charcoal on paper, 300 x 140cm, Photography Dickon Whitehead, Image courtesy of the artist.
03. Lelia Henry, Sadhbh, 2025, Charcoal on paper, 300 x 140cm, Photography Dickon Whitehead, Image courtesy of the artist.
Instagram: @leliahenry Facebook: @leliahenry.5
