Born at Great Yarmouth in East Anglia in 1949 and spent his childhood by
the seaside. He was influenced to take up an artistic career by his
father, who taught him to draw. In particular, he was also inspired by
the art, prints and posters of the Newlyn School, the French
impressionists, Degas, Renoir and Toulouse Lautrec.
While he took a course in fine art and graphics at a local college of
art, Raymond Leech considers himself mainly to be a self-taught artist.
Originally he made his living in graphic design, but demand for his
original art, prints and posters grew so great that he eventually made
the decision to take up painting full time. He works in watercolour, oil
and pastel, and his motivation as an artist is best illustrated by his
affection for the figure-work of the Cornish Newlyn School of artists,
which at the turn of the twentieth century included Stanhope Forbes and
Dame Laura Knight. He admires their work because it provided ‘a breath
of fresh air’ and Raymond Leech believes that a successful painting is
not just a picture, but one that captures the air around the subject and
the atmosphere as well.
Raymond Leech is a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the
Guild of Norwich Painters. He won the Charles Pears Prize at the RSMA
Exhibition at The Mall Galleries in 1986 and now exhibits regularly in
London and East Anglia. His art, prints and posters have been exhibited
with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and is now held in private
collections throughout the United Kingdom, South Africa, America, Spain
and Hong Kong.
