LEO MANCINI-HRESKO

b. 1981, Boston, Massachusetts

Leo began his studies in 1999 at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. During a semester abroad in Florence, Italy, Leo found The Florence Academy of Art, where he began studies in 2001.

After graduating in 2005, Leo was asked to stay on at the school, first as an instructor and subsequently director of the school’s drawing program for sculptors. Additionally, Leo taught regular courses in plein-air landscape painting and artist materials until leaving the school in 2011.

Having left his 19th-Century painting studio in Florence, Leo has relocated to his native Massachusetts, now working and teaching from his studio in an old mill building in Waltham, MA.

Whether working en plein-air or in the studio Leo works with traditional materials, his own hand-ground paints, canvases and oils.

Leo’s paintings can be found in private collections worldwide.

The most important element in painting is the creation of imagery. A beautiful image must be considered in composition, color, drawing and execution; it is not enough, however, to just make an image including all four elements. Already that is well difficult. A painting should be painted; you must see the process, the brushstrokes, creation of the ground, glazes and impastos. No two inches of any picture should be treated the same. What always drew me to painting was the contrast between rough and smooth, harsh and subtle. That is where beauty is. I hope to draw the viewer in, to see the world a moment in the way I do.

Selected Exhibitions

2014 | Inside Out[side] | Sloane Merrill Gallery | Boston, MA

2005
Group Exhibition   | W.H. Patterson | London, England 

Education
The Florence Academy of Art
Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University 

Teaching Experience
Director of Drawing in Sculpture Program | 2006-2011 | The Florence Academy of Art
Instructor | 2003-2006 | The Florence Academy of Art