Leonard, graduate of Ringling School of Art is from Bradenton/Sarasota
area where he worked for 23 years in advertising art and
illustration. After two decades, Leonard took his experience
and training and embarked on his second life as fine artist.
Living and working in his studio/home on Dog Island, with
only 20 permanent residents, offers solitude and inspiration
seen in the naturally unspoiled landscape of the island.
Leonard has been chosen to exhibit his work in the nationally
renowned ARTS for the PARTKS 1999 art festival, which
is a very great honor.
Roger Leonard an award winning artist-paints wonderfully
illuminated oil landscapes of the local island foliage,
the Gulf and dunes and local bots. His scenes evoke an
emotional reaction in the viewer that is rarely seen.
The words of Roger Leonard are as moving as the art he
paints, “I need to capture the time, place, feeling
of being there, of knowing my subjects intimately. The
joy for me is the creating and the painting, then watching
and listening to those who enjoy it also. When I hear
people’s comments like, “I can smell the rain,
the sea – I’d really like to walk there,”
then I know they feel what I saw.”
