Biography
Louise Leonard is an Irish printmaker working principally in copper-plate etching and aquatint, with linocut, woodcut, and mokuhanga (Japanese water-based woodblock printing) added more recently. Born in Dublin in 1960, she earned a BA in Visual Communication from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in 1983 and joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 2004. She served on the Board of Directors at Graphic Studio Dublin from 2011 to 2015 and continues to teach linocut printmaking there.
Her prints are circulated through Graphic Studio Gallery and SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin, and her work is exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), the Royal Ulster Academy (RUA), and the Watercolour Society of Ireland, of which she is a member. Her solo exhibition 'A Body of Water' at Graphic Studio Gallery established the principal subjects of her practice — woodland, water, and natural form rendered through dense intaglio aquatint blacks and small-scale linocut compositions.
Leonard's mokuhanga 'Cock of the Walk' was selected for Kanreki, the exhibition mounted by Graphic Studio Dublin to mark its 60th anniversary, for which all participating artists were asked to incorporate the colour red; the show ran at Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin, in 2021. She also participated as an exhibiting artist in the 2021 International Mokuhanga Conference held in Nara, Japan.
Her broader body of work spans etching, aquatint, linocut, and mokuhanga, and her prints are held in major Irish and international institutions including the National Gallery of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, the National Library of Ireland, the National Botanic Gardens, the British Library, and Boston College, alongside private collections internationally.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1960
- Nationality
- 🇮🇪Ireland
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Louise Leonard is an Irish printmaker working principally in copper-plate etching and aquatint, with linocut, woodcut, and mokuhanga (Japanese water-based woodblock printing) added more recently. Born in Dublin in 1960, she earned a BA in Visual Communication from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in 1983 and joined Graphic Studio Dublin in 2004. She served on the Board of Directors at Graphic Studio Dublin from 2011 to 2015 and continues to teach linocut printmaking there.
Louise Leonard was active born in 1960. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Louise Leonard's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.