Leda founder GJ Gillespie in Passionate Painter Podcast interview
As artists, we are all in search of the perfect tools to bring our visions to life. For GJ Gillespie, a retired college professor, award-winning artist, and founder of Leda Art Supply, this quest led to the creation of an art company that embodies the spirit of artistic passion and pursuit of perfection.
Leda Art Supply, named after the mythical figure Leda from ancient Greek mythology, was born out of GJ's dissatisfaction with available sketchbooks. As he and his wife Teresa journeyed around the world, capturing scenes and people through sketches, they found existing sketchbooks lacking in quality and durability. The paper would often bleed ink, smear, or tear easily, and the bindings of even the better-quality notebooks began to fall apart.
Driven by the desire for a sketchbook that could meet the demands of passionate artists like himself, GJ embarked on a mission. He set out to create a sketchbook that combined the right size, paper quality, and weight for the traveling artist.
This journey eventually led to the birth of the Leda Odyssey, a 7 x 10-inch sketchbook featuring 160 pages of cream-colored, high-quality 81-pound paper designed for a variety of mediums including pencil, ink, pen, charcoal, and even light watercolor washes.
GJ's dedication to achieving his vision resonated with artists worldwide. Since its launch in 2016, Leda Art Supply has received overwhelming positive feedback from its users, averaging 4.7-star reviews.
The success of the Leda Odyssey led to the introduction of additional sizes to cater to various artist needs, including the medium A5, extra large A4, pocket-sized version, the 8.25 x 8.25 inch Atlas Journal and the 8.25 x 5.5 inch Phoebe landscape Journal.
The Atlas and Phoebe journals are so popular Leda's creative team will introduce a larger size version of sketch sketchbook in the coming months!
The journey of Leda Art Supply is a testament to the power of passion in the pursuit of beauty, mirroring the myth of Leda and Zeus from which it derives its name. Just as their divine union produced Helen of Troy, known as the most beautiful woman in the world, GJ's pursuit of the perfect sketchbook has resulted in a product that enables artists to produce creations of elegant beauty.
As of today, nearly 100,000 books have been sold and Leda Art Supply has expanded into six European countries, bringing GJ's dream sketchbook to artists' doorsteps across the globe.
For those who are still in pursuit of the ideal sketchbook, we invite you to experience the Leda Odyssey or any of the other offerings in the Leda collection. T
hese sketchbooks are more than just tools; they are companions in your artistic journey, designed to help you express your aesthetic inspiration and make the world a more beautiful place. 
GJ Gillespie at opening of solo show in BC Canada
See all of his art at his web blog. 
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