Leigh English is self-taught as a calligrapher/watercolorist, a process that probably has its roots in her love of reading, and drawing as a child growing up in Groton, Massachusetts, and that finally found expression in letters copied (and embellished) from an old calligraphy book discovered in a local library. Over the past thirty years, Leigh has developed a business that includes the design of wedding invitations, certificates, honorary resolutions and business cards, diploma lettering, small commemorative pieces and the larger, illuminated work that is her special love. Leigh is a 22 year state juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, and a founder of the Granite Scribes. For many years she taught calligraphy and related arts at the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences, as well as through various adult education programs in the Concord, N.H area. She now concentrates strictly on developing her own art, working out of a small studio at her central New Hampshire home.

Leigh says of her work: I have a hard time divorcing text from image; a few words can bring a barrage of images to my mind; an image can bring a flood of words. My particular medium allows me the luxury of combining them, in layouts loosely based on early illuminated manuscript pages. The layering of text that appears in much of my recent work gives me opportunity for even greater depth of expression, both verbally and artistically. The watercolor painting that began thirty years ago as a way to decorate my lettering, has now become integral and continues to change as I discover new techniques, new ways to reproduce what I see. The work I’m doing now is simply the current step in the evolution of my learning.