About

LESLIE ANN ELIET

Painter, Printmaker, Book Artist

Iron Fish Studio

Artist’s Statement

I am a painter, printmaker and book artist. I studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, under Kaji Aso, a Japanese painter and calligrapher. My work utilizes a variety of materials, methods and formats, both Western and Japanese. Walking (Ink) Meditations, a title I use for my longer book works and installations, describes both the way I approach my work in the studio and the sources of my imagery. Using a meditative approach to landscape, my abstract, gestural images emerge by recalling and embodying such indefinable elements as quality of light, season, time of day. They also incorporate memories and dreams, and are meant to evoke nature rather than describe it.

Place is an important element in my work. I live and work on Cape Ann on the north shore of Massachusetts and I pay particular attention to the quiet, almost forgotten places. Away from the rocky Atlantic coast, the wild, forested interior of Cape Ann harbors a number of small woodland ponds, marshes, streams and abandoned quarries, loud with birds and peepers in the spring, redolent with lilies and reeds in the summer, but just as memorable in the silence of winter. Away from New England, I have traveled extensively, seeking out those same quiet, forgotten places, especially those with long, wordless memories like the prehistoric stone circles and barrows in France and England, but also the ancient temples and shrines in Japan, Tibet and Nepal. Time is also an important element, so the formats of much of my work - accordion books, folding screens and larger wall installations, for example - seek to engage viewers directly as they unfold the books or walk through the installation space. My accordion books can be viewed in sequence as single images or unfolded at the viewer’s instigation to reveal more complex visual and thematic relationships. In addition to their presence as books to be read sequentially, they can be displayed partially opened as folding screens on a shelf or table.

The Pond Studies have evolved since 2005 as explorations in watercolor and sumi ink, approaching the purely abstract and gestural but anchored in the day-to-day seasonal changes in color and light in the landscape. On a purely technical level, I find especially fascinating the unpredictable aspects of wet-on-wet color mixing and the emergence of fractals - the chaotic, jagged borders where different pigments and degrees of wetness collide and then solidify. The Pond Studies allow me to experiment with color relationships and the flow of line. Since I moved back to the Boston area from Ithaca, NY, in 2012, I have also been exploring the nuances of the gestural line through the study of Japanese calligraphy, which challenges with its immediacy and spontaneity. The medium allows for no hesitation or second thoughts.

Recalling the ancient Chinese philosophical tradition of Taoism, my approach to art-making is immersive and meditative, approaching nature free of limitations and preconceptions, enjoying the images that emerge spontaneously in the studio and the expressive flow of the materials.

Education

  • Master of Arts, Tufts University

  • Bachelor of Arts, with honors, St. Bonaventure University

  • School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1972-74)

Exhibition History

Solo Exhibitions

20 Solo Exhibitions since 1986, including at Gallery Nature and Temptation, Kaji Aso Studio, Boston, MA (2011, 1997); ARC (Artists, Residents of Chicago) Gallery and Educational Foundation, Chicago, IL (2009, 2002, 1995, 1993); Fassbender Gallery, Chicago, IL; SUNY Buffalo Art Gallery (as part of the Beyond/In Western New York Biennial, 2005); Community Arts Partnership ArtSpace, Ithaca, NY; ReachArts, Swampscott, MA(Full list available on request)

Over 100 Group Exhibitions since 1979, including with The Boston Printmakers; Gallery Nature and Temptation, Kaji Aso Studio, Boston, MA; ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL; International Print Center of New York; Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur, GA; New York Society of Etchers; Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY (Full list available on request)

Current: Opening Nov. 4, 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Gallery Nature and Temptation, Kaji Aso Studio, Boston, MA. The Book as Art v.11: Myth and Magic, Georgia Center for the Book, Decatur Library, Decatur, GA. September 7 - October 30; Boston Printmakers 2023 North American Print Biennial, 808 Gallery at Boston University, Boston, MA, October 3 - December 13.

Further information, including full exhibition history, professional affiliations and activities, grants and awards, articles by and about the artist, collections and price lists is available by consulting the Contact page.