Julia Ledyard
Julia draws, paints and makes stuff in her studio in the small town of Fairfax, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her art is influenced by her love for and experience in graphic design. She is currently Founding Partner and Creative Director of Ledyard Qvistgaard Design Office, a brand creation and package design, also in Fairfax.
Before starting Ledyard Qvistgaard, she worked as senior designer for Maddocks & Company in Los Angeles, later moving to the NY office as Vice President and Creative Director.
Artist Statement
Most of my pieces are from life and all are done in a moment, long or short. They are not preconceived. I push the suggestiveness of the forms, either in front of me or from my imagination, aiming at creating powerful, vital imagery while not losing the fragility of the moment. I am drawn to a gestural neo-expressionistic vocabulary of thin lines against big bold colored forms and strokes. Many of pieces begin with traditional materials from my home—cloth, thread, my mother's tea towel, an empty toilet paper roll. Paint is applied with my hands, sticks, cardboard, rags, potatoes—anything, to achieve an irregularity and rawness of line. Recent pieces enact the classic dance between the immediacy of material surface and the revelation of content. At first the form and line show up as an end in itself, and then the object or figure reveals itself, sometimes only for a moment, before it retreats back into the physicality of being marks on paper or felt on bone.
My studio is in the small town of Fairfax, in the San Francisco Bay Area. My art is influenced by my fascination for human gesture and my love for and experience in graphic design. My husband Martin and I are partners in a brand creation and package design office, appropriately called The Ledyards, also in Fairfax, CA. We are inspired by and in fierce creative competition with our daughter Ella Rose, also an artist.
Artist C.V.
Selected Exhibitions:
2022 Marin Open Studios
2022 Group Exhibition, Marin Open Studios, Corte Madera, CA
2022 The Other Art Fair, Los Angeles (Spring)
2021 The Other Art Fair, Los Angeles
2021 Group Exhibition, Marin Open Studios, Kentfield, CA
2018 Vessel Gallery, Summer Sessions
2018 Marin Open Studios, Fairfax, CA
2017 Group Exhibition, CHAOS!!! Ro2 Gallery, Dallas, TX
2017 Group Exhibition, Marin Open Studios, Corte Madera, CA
2017 Marin Open Studios, Fairfax, CA
2012 Group Exhibition, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2011 Group Exhibition, Showing Up, Drawing Circus Invitational, Richmond Art Center,
Richmond, CA, Curator Edward Stanton
2010 Group Exhibition, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2008 Solo Exhibition, “DRAW” Recent Life Drawings,
Smith Andersen North, San Anselmo, CA
Education and Other Experiences:
Julia holds a BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
Drawing Circus, Richmond Art Center and College of Marin
Founder and creative director of LQ Project, a creative workshop group
Organizer and Host, Edward Stanton’s Drawing Circus events
Painting workshop, San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center
Outdoor/building mural creation with students, Ross Valley School District
Teacher, Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Julia draws, paints and makes stuff in her studio in the small town of Fairfax, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her art is influenced by her love for and experience in graphic design. She is currently Founding Partner and Creative Director of Ledyard Qvistgaard Design Office, a brand creation and package design, also in Fairfax.
Before starting Ledyard Qvistgaard, she worked as senior designer for Maddocks & Company in Los Angeles, later moving to the NY office as Vice President and Creative Director.
Artist Statement
Most of my pieces are from life and all are done in a moment, long or short. They are not preconceived. I push the suggestiveness of the forms, either in front of me or from my imagination, aiming at creating powerful, vital imagery while not losing the fragility of the moment. I am drawn to a gestural neo-expressionistic vocabulary of thin lines against big bold colored forms and strokes. Many of pieces begin with traditional materials from my home—cloth, thread, my mother's tea towel, an empty toilet paper roll. Paint is applied with my hands, sticks, cardboard, rags, potatoes—anything, to achieve an irregularity and rawness of line. Recent pieces enact the classic dance between the immediacy of material surface and the revelation of content. At first the form and line show up as an end in itself, and then the object or figure reveals itself, sometimes only for a moment, before it retreats back into the physicality of being marks on paper or felt on bone.
My studio is in the small town of Fairfax, in the San Francisco Bay Area. My art is influenced by my fascination for human gesture and my love for and experience in graphic design. My husband Martin and I are partners in a brand creation and package design office, appropriately called The Ledyards, also in Fairfax, CA. We are inspired by and in fierce creative competition with our daughter Ella Rose, also an artist.
Artist C.V.
Selected Exhibitions:
2022 Marin Open Studios
2022 Group Exhibition, Marin Open Studios, Corte Madera, CA
2022 The Other Art Fair, Los Angeles (Spring)
2021 The Other Art Fair, Los Angeles
2021 Group Exhibition, Marin Open Studios, Kentfield, CA
2018 Vessel Gallery, Summer Sessions
2018 Marin Open Studios, Fairfax, CA
2017 Group Exhibition, CHAOS!!! Ro2 Gallery, Dallas, TX
2017 Group Exhibition, Marin Open Studios, Corte Madera, CA
2017 Marin Open Studios, Fairfax, CA
2012 Group Exhibition, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2011 Group Exhibition, Showing Up, Drawing Circus Invitational, Richmond Art Center,
Richmond, CA, Curator Edward Stanton
2010 Group Exhibition, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2008 Solo Exhibition, “DRAW” Recent Life Drawings,
Smith Andersen North, San Anselmo, CA
Education and Other Experiences:
Julia holds a BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
Drawing Circus, Richmond Art Center and College of Marin
Founder and creative director of LQ Project, a creative workshop group
Organizer and Host, Edward Stanton’s Drawing Circus events
Painting workshop, San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center
Outdoor/building mural creation with students, Ross Valley School District
Teacher, Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
