Leo Guida

They Pretend to Sleep - Etching by Leo Guida - 1975

1975

Prolific throughout the 1960s and 1970s, artist Leo Guida was an influential Italian painter and printmaker. 

Beginning in 1969, Guida served as a teacher for nearly two decades at the Liceo Artistico in Latina. While he worked with watercolor paints to create much of his known art, he produced a wide range of graphic prints that is representative of his talents.

Guida worked with Chinese ink and was fluent in a variety of printmaking techniques, which included chalcography, engraving and aquatint. The latter is a technique named for its resemblance to watercolor or ink wash, while engraving is a method of making prints by incising lines into a metal plate with a sharp tool called a burin. Chalcography sees an artist engraving on copper or brass plates.

Guida made art in all kinds of styles over the course of his career. The bulk of his drawings and etchings are richly detailed and fantastical — they feature nudes, imagery from nature and depictions of mythological creatures. Guida’s works on paper show the influence of Spanish printmaker and painter Francisco Goya and are also inclusive of Surrealist flourishes and themes. 

Find original Leo Guida drawings and watercolors, prints and paintings on 1stDibs.