Today’s artist, Leah Gardner, may be young, but she clearly has an old soul. The Chicago-based self-taught painter initially started painting early in the pandemic as a distraction from what was going on in the world. She used trial and error (and likely YouTube) to hone her craft, and pretty quickly realized that oil was her medium. I find her paintings absolutely charming. I wish I’d used my time during the pandemic so productively!

You can check out all of Leah Gardner’s paintings on her website and on Instagram and Facebook.