Leslie James

Exhibited at Lycoming Arts Gallery

Being self-taught in almost all endeavors she is always pushing her edge of design. Although having a career background in business and accounting, 'Leslie Gilbert' finds "relief from numbers" comes with a zealous escape to her working artisan studio. Prompting a contradistinctive name, this is where 'Leslie James' comes to life releasing visionary ingenuity.

Leslie typically paints with a knife, using acrylics or oil with a large area mixture of contrasting textures. She is not a traditional artist, rather impressionistically novel. For anyone who knows her work, they will see a wide melange of talent and skill. From wheel thrown/slab pottery, jewelry making, copper electroplating, gouache, watercolor, mixed media fine art, to pattern-to-finish luxe genuine leather totes. A few original paintings were printed onto fabric from which she sewed and sold Japanese knot bags.

Leslie currently has several of her custom, one of kind, free from ceramic sinks in the exclusive City Hall Grand Hotel. May 2020 brought the opportunity to collaborate on a public art mosaic piece, though her very first time working with mosaic, this would be a fabulous experience with a very talented group of artists.

Leslie is the active board treasurer and member of the Bald Eagle Art League, while also being an artist on the registry of the Bellefonte Art Museum (where she has her luxe leather totes in the "Twiga" museum gift shop on display). She states, "Leather is my most current addiction, buying the whole leather cow hide, laying it out on my studio floor and cutting each unique piece, yeah, I’m addicted!" She actually went from no sewing experience to sewing and selling her custom artisan leather totes in seven months. "I get it in my head. I have to make it happen or the flow of creativity and inspiration gets all jammed up!"

While participating in the 52nd annual Ways Garden Art show, she happened to meet internationally known car artist Simon Ward. Following many chats of cars, techniques, mediums and how she executes her specific style, all while throwing ideas off the walls to each other, another opportunity for collaboration has begun. "I think after the visit to the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum I was hooked, standing there, open-mouthed and speechless nearly faint with inspiration. I knew this was my next adventure!"

From the beginning she has always made one of kind pieces, knowing the value of art that no one else has or can have. Simply put, "unique as the one who owns it." this is ~ Leslie James