Leighton Bannock is a Toronto-based figurative painter working primarily in oil. Her work spans both figurative and still life painting, often incorporating subtle surreal elements and close, cropped framings that prioritize atmosphere over explicit storytelling.

Leighton is interested in how a single gesture or arrangement of objects can evoke a psychological state or hint at a moment just outside the frame.

Partial views and proximate objects introduce a sense of liminality, placing viewers between cause and consequence and inviting slow, interpretive looking. Through this intentional ambiguity, Leighton encourages an attentive, unhurried engagement — an invitation to dwell in uncertainty and pause within a world that rarely allows it.

"My painting responds to Drea’s Simone Says, a portrait of a woman who feels lost in thought. I began to imagine what she might be reflecting on and pictured her revisiting a childhood memory, a time when she moved through the world more carefree. I saw that memory as a photograph of herself swinging on a tire swing on a hot summer day. The photograph is a reminder of a younger self, of a mind and body that moved without apology. Kept close, it becomes a quiet resistance to the pressures placed on women to behave and compose themselves in certain ways." — Leighton Bannock

This piece is presented as part of our International Women's Day Exhibition, After You: The Broken Telephone Collection, from March 6th - 8th and will be shipped following the show. Over a year in the making, the Broken Telephone Collection began with one artist working from a reference photograph; each subsequent artist creates a piece inspired by the one before her, and so on, and so forth.

Each acquisition from this collection will include a complimentary 11" x 8.5" print of the reference piece that precedes it. The inspiration piece for this artwork is Drea Cohane, Simone Says. Please note, all artworks will be shipped after the exhibition has concluded.

IWD 2026

Maxine McCrann / Lemons on the Table

Marcia Bianchi / Bisous

Marissa Apstein / Late Checkout

Lauren Bencivengo / Lemons on Plaid

Leighton Bannock / Touching Grass