MICA – Eric Leland

Today we are sharing the beautiful work of Eric Leland who I met on a recent work trip to the US! I was lucky enough to get to visit Boston & Baltimore, hang out with the team at the Lilla Rogers Studio & teach some workshops & deliver a public lecture at MICA (Maryland Institute College Of Art). It was such an honour to be invited & to teach at such a wonderful college with talented tutors such as Eric.

Eric’s design career began in architecture – he spent five years working in that field in Baltimore, Maryland, & passed his registration exams in 2007. However, at the same time, he was overtaken both by wanderlust & by a growing realisation that he was happiest with the part of his work that involved pencil & paintbrush. Eric & his wife took a leap across the Atlantic, and then enrolled in the postgraduate illustration course at University College Falmouth, in Cornwall, England. Since 2009, Eric has been back in Baltimore, where he has now nearly filled his basement with obsolete letterpress printing equipment. Eric produces & markets his own illustrated greeting cards, calendars, books, prints & paper goods, much of which is printed & bound by hand, by me. For the 2013 – 14 academic year, he is also teaching part time on the Illustration Practice MFA course at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

You can visit Eric’s lovely website & his Etsy shop to buy his gorgeous illustrations.