Leslie Yolen
"I am interested in creating works that are evocative rather than descriptive, exploring the expressive potential of various media and the physicality of materials. This series of landscape paintings uses the transparency, opacity and translucence inherent in encaustic painting to capture the wonder and awe I feel in connecting to the exquisite landscapes that surround me in the northern Catskill Mountains. The paintings are made in the hot wax process referred to as encaustic. I work with encaustic paint, which is beeswax and tree resin with pigments, on wood panels using brushes, torches, knives, and scraping tools. I love the sense of the unexpected, the warm fragrance, and the anticipation evoked by moving molten wax. The alternate carving through and building up of layers of wax are like the additive and subtractive processes of working with clay, which has long been my favored medium. Both mediums undergo transformation by fire and present a challenge due to a lack of control or rather relinquishing some control to serendipity. No matter what the media, I relish that dialogue with the material. The paintings develop through numerous translucent layers. Pigment is suspended in beeswax, allowing light to permeate and become compositionally present. I work with wax for its ethereal and translucent qualities, incorporating the depth of wax as an atmospheric element. These paintings are not only physical forms but manifestations of memory, time, and spiritual presence. Each piece holds a sense of quiet yet powerful resonance for me. Through these landscapes, I invite viewers into a deeper awareness of our spiritual connection to the natural world—and of its fragile, precarious beauty."
Leslie Yolen lives and works in the Helderberg Mountains of Upstate New York. She has worked predominantly in clay and has recently taken to working in painting and sculpture as her prominent mediums.
Yolen boasts a lengthy career in arts education and recently retired from her position as the Arts Education Associate at the New York State Education Department. Prior to working with NYSED, Yolen taught Visual Art in public schools for over twenty years. During her career she has organized several artist residencies and operated a successful art studio business while directing a cooperative fine arts & craft gallery.
She has recently exhibited at The Arts Center of the Capitol Region, NY; Albany Center Gallery, NY; Laffer Gallery, NY; Emerge Gallery, NY; The Blooming Artist Gallery, NY; The Cooperstown Art Association, NY; Truro Center for the Arts, MA; Athens Cultural Center, NY; Mountain Gallery, NY; Saratoga Arts, NY; Courthouse Gallery, NY; The Carey Institute, NY; Big Eye Gallery, NY; Woodstock Art School, NY; Gilboa Museum, Gilboa, NY; San Francisco Women’s Museum, CA and Mountaintop Gallery, NY.
Yolen has received numerous awards including the Cooperstown Art Association’s 2023 National Juror’s Citation, Albany Center Gallery’s Honorable Mention Award, and the Orchard Valley Ceramic Arts Guild Award. She studied at Bennington College (BA) and the College of Saint Rose (MA) and she continues to learn from renowned artists in regional workshop settings.
