Leslie Neumann Biography

Leslie Neumann received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, in 1974, and a Master’s Degree in painting from New York University in Manhattan in 1980. After living in New York City for 14 years and teaching art at St. John’s University in Queens for 6 of those years, she moved in 1991 to the small fishing village of Aripeka on the Gulf of Mexico in central Florida. An active environmentalist, Neumann and other members of her community have been successful in helping to preserve more than 14,000 acres of pristine coastal lands. Neumann’s paintings are inspired by the natural forces found in cosmic and terrestrial landscapes. Made with oil paint and encaustic (hot wax), the wax is applied with a brush while it is still hot. After it congeals, the artist scrapes through to reveal another layer of color; she then engraves pictographs, words, and marks into the molten wax. The result is a rich luminous surface. Mary Ann Marger, art critic for the St. Petersburg Times describes Neumann as a “dark romantic whose mysterious paintings seem independent of time – or weather.” The Tampa Tribune’s Lara Bradburn says Neumann’s landscapes “evoke a dichotomy of sensations and distinctive paradox: they are both passionate and soothing, powerful and disarming, apocalyptic and transcendent.” While Joan Altabe of the Sarasota Herald Tribune calls Neumann “The real thing.” She says, “There’s no peace here, no safe hold. These landscapes celebrate unpredictability and mood. If you want to see the sublime, see these pictures by Neumann.” Neumann is a recipient of a 1993 Adolph and Ester Gottleib Foundation Grant for Painting, and a 1989 Fellowship from the New York State Foundation for the Arts, as well as an Individual Artist Fellowship from the State of Florida in 2001, and in 2007 an Artist Enhancement Grant from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. In 1995, she was among the 50 artists selected by Jack Cowart, Deputy Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to be included in the Open Studios book New American Paintings. In 2005, Neumann was honored with a 15 year retrospective of her work at the Vero Beach Art Museum. One can find Neumann’s work in many private and public collections throughout the United States, including Nissan Motor Corporation in Los Angeles, ADT Securities in New Jersey, Marriott hotels in Washington, DC, and Florida museums such as the Polk Museum of Art, Tampa Museum, Gulf Coast Museum of Art, as well as the City of Tampa and the City of Orlando’s Public Art Collections.

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