Artist Spotlight: Leslie Giuliani
Three examples of Leslie’s work using encaustic monotypes as backgrounds.
Leslie Giuliani is one of our Core instructors and has taught at R&F for many years. She offers private and small group instruction out of her home studio in Weston, Connecticut, and teaches at various art centers and venues throughout New England. Leslie’s work often combines digital embroidery, hand embroidery, digital textile printing, sewing, encaustic, and cold wax. She has written for Rug Hooking and Hand/Eye magazines and is the recipient of an Artist Fellowship Grant for Craft from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. Her work is included in the Housatonic Museum of Art.
Leslie will be teaching two workshops at R&F this year. In May she will offer Paper Lithography with R&F Pigment Sticks® and in August she will return for Printmaking Without A Press. We chatted with Leslie about her biggest influences, taking classes at R&F, and the product lines she created.
Leslie working in her Weston, Connecticut studio.
How did you get started?
I come from a family of artists on my mom’s side and musicians on my dad’s. My great uncles were portrait and billboard painters. My grandfather was a supermarket sign painter. He also worked in neon. To this day mom still paints and prints. It was her career. My own kid is a cartoonist.
Growing up, everyone drew birthday cards and banners, etc. It was our language. But we also crafted things. I began sewing and knitting at a very young age. I also hook rugs. In my work, I combine my love of textiles and painting by machine embroidering the imagery in my paintings.
What are your biggest influences?
My biggest inspiration, aside from my mother, Loretta Mossman (who is at the top of the list for encouraging me to paint and craft with material integrity) is painter, printmaker, sculptor, and textile artist Louise Bourgeois. Her work inspired me to add embroidery to my paintings and prints. Her methods say “use whatever you need to add energy to your work.”
Leslie Giuliani, Woodland Discovery, embroidery with encaustic monotype embellishments.
In addition to teaching, you have taken several workshops at R&F. What do you love about studying there? What have you learned?
I try to take a class every year. I don’t care which class I take. It’s better that way because I often don’t know what I don’t know until I learn it. Any class adds something to my toolbox.
The artists who teach at R&F offer a wide range of ways to use paint, including things they have discovered through their own practices. I’m thinking of David A. Clark’s inventive printmaking techniques and Lorraine Glessner’s mixed media material investigation and experimentation. Or how Lisa Pressman’s painting style uses “every part of the buffalo.” Nothing is wasted - it just leads to the next thing. Laura Moriarty was my first encaustic instructor. I plan to work with her again this year because she is endlessly inventive.
Of course, a favorite part of taking classes at R&F is being at R&F. The factory is magical, the classroom spacious. My advice: Don’t get hung up on what class to take. If you have time in your schedule, go for it.
Paper lithography process photos.
Tell us about the workshops you will be offering at R&F.
In May, I am teaching “Paper Lithography on Wax.” Using R&F Pigment Sticks® as our ink and encaustic paintings or prints as our paper, artists will be pulling prints right onto their paintings. No press needed. If you don’t like the result, you can just wipe the print off and try again. We will be using laser copies or simple crayon drawings as our printing plates, so images can be resized, repeated, and reversed.
Paper lithography process photos.
The whole gamut of R&F’s Pigment Stick® color line will be available for printing. The process is great for working in a series or to add that missing “something” to works in progress.
You will learn a versatile technique with materials you likely already have that could even breathe new life into unresolved work. Any painter who works with encaustic should have this technique handy.
Leslie served as R&F’s first artist in residence at Brown Pink.
My August workshop is “Encaustic Printmaking without a Press.” This course will cover an enormous range of encaustic monotype printmaking processes, as well as paper lithography. R&F Pigment Sticks® will serve as our ink and we will work primarily on the heated palette with Encaustiflex, a super-absorbent microfiber paper that can hold many layers of painting and printing without cracking.
This is a very comprehensive workshop. We will cover Suminagashi marbling, stencils, relief printing, trace monotypes, stamping with multi-layered encaustic blocks, and much more. I will even have sewing machines available for surface embellishment or book making. Artists will come away with an arsenal of techniques that can fit into any studio practice.
Leslie’s Encaustiflex microfiber paper.
You create your own stencils and Encaustiflex. Why did you develop them and how they can be used?
Encaustiflex is a microfiber “paper” I market because it solved so may problems I encountered in my own work. It can be heavily painted without building up surface texture and will not crack. I can sew through it without it ripping or tearing. It’s great for artist books too. Also, it is inexpensive so I can experiment freely without breaking the bank. Encaustiflex has its own website: encaustiflex.com.
Leslie’s full line of Dura-Lar stencils.
My heat-resistant Dura-Lar stencil line developed as the result of requests I got from students who tried my personal collection in class. They were designed to add texture and interest without dominating an artwork so artists can use the stencils in their own way without their work looking like anyone else’s.
I have 16 different stencil patterns. They can be used with encaustic, Pigment Sticks®, and Pan Pastels. They are available in my website shop.
Artists taking a group class in Leslie’s Weston, Connecticut studio.
You also teach from your home studio. Can you describe it for those who haven't been there?
My home studio is fully equipped and can accommodate 5 artists. I have TONS of materials and tools because I love to experiment and stretch the range of encaustic painting and printing possibilities for myself and my visiting artists.
If you are interested in taking a studio workshop, I recommend you sign up for my mailing list. I send out notices when I’ve added a new class.
Leslie Giuliani, Paper Dolls, encaustic assemblage on wood.
Where else can we find you this year?
I have several free demo videos on my YouTube channel. You can learn with me there any time. In addition to group classes and privates in my Weston, Connecticut studio, I will be teaching at the venues listed below.
March 8 - 10: Encaustic Printmaking: The Series and the Book at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, Connecticut.
April 9 - 10: Encaustic Printmaking Without A Press at the Guilford Art Center, Guilford, Connecticut
April 23: Hot Wax, Cool Paintings: An R&F Encaustic and Pigment Sticks® Demo at Jerry’s Artarama in West Hartford, Connecticut
April 25 - 29: Perfect Partners: Encaustic and Collage at Artist Rising Creativity Retreats, Glastonbury, Connecticut
May 20 - 21: Paper Lithography with R&F Pigment Sticks® at R&F Handmade Paints, Kingston, New York
June 8 - 9: Paper Lithography using R&F Pigment Sticks® on an Encaustiflex Monotypes and Encaustic Paintings at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, Truro, Massachusetts
August 18 - 20: Printmaking Without A Press at R&F Handmade Paints, Kingston, New York
September 13 & 20: Guest instructor at the Maine Coast Encaustic Retreat with Dietlind Vander Schaaf, Kennebunkport, Maine