David L. Leister

David L. Leister has been drawing and painting since early childhood. He developed his skills as a painter while working as an aeronautical engineer, which undoubtedly influenced his realistic painting style. After retiring from engineering in 1999, he and his wife, also an accomplished artist, moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Eastport, Maine where they both paint full time. Oils and watercolors are David’s preferred painting mediums.

David is, by choice, completely self-taught except for advice given by his artist wife Martha Sovell Leister. His paintings have won awards in prestigious shows sponsored by the Texas Watercolor Society and the Oklahoma City Arts Council. He also has had two very successful one-man watercolor shows at the Dow Galleries in Ft. Worth, Texas and many of his paintings are now in private collections throughout the United States.

David is an accomplished classical pianist and amateur musicologist and enjoys listening to classical, folk, or celtic music while he paints.

Martha Sovell Leister

Martha Sovell Leister, a native Oklahoman, moved to Eastport in 1999 with her artist husband, David L. Leister, to enjoy a cooler climate, exchanging the open plains of the Southwest for the big water of Passamaquoddy Bay and delighting in the “Down East” flavor. Her love for these new environs has worked its way into her still life and landscape paintings. Oils and pastels are her chosen mediums.   

Martha has painted most of her life, studying with many notable artists, but she believes her work is most influenced by the late Richard V. Goetz, an Oklahoma artist and teacher who later instructed at the Art Students League in New York City. Her paintings are now held in private collections throughout the United States.