Events

LEON LOUGHRIDGE
Born 1952 in Denver, Colorado; lives in Denver, Colorado

As a printmaker, I want to record in printed form the vitality of my out-door sketches. Sketching is a direct and invigorating encounter with the subject, while printmaking becomes more methodical. The challenge of translating a painterly image into a block print is to translate the energy of the original into the print, not to merely duplicate the image.

The printmakers’ reward is to see the passion of the original sketch conveyed in the woodblock print.

LEON’S CONNECTION TO THE SOUTHWEST landscape came naturally, growing up on a Northern New Mexico ranch. His grandmother’s involvement in Northern New Mexico art circles exposed him to the arts from an early age. Later study at the Colorado Institute of Art, along with private study, reinforced his abilities. Stationed in Germany as an illustrator while in the army, he was able to travel extensively throughout Europe. On his return to Colorado, Leon began to study the intaglio techniques and began selling the prints in mountain galleries. In 1998, Leon purchased his first letterpress and received immediate success with the woodblock prints he produced. In 2005, he started printing using the Japanese method of printmaking. The versatile layering of color in the woodblock process allowed him to better capture the atmospheric qualities of the Southwestern landscape that has such a strong meaning for him.

Gallery Representation
Ann Korologos Gallery, Basalt, CO
Breckenridge Gallery, Breckenridge, CO
Broadmoor Galleries, Colorado Springs, CO
Gerald Peters Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM