Leonard Brooks Original African American Black Americana Vintage Painting

  
LEONARD BROOKS ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR SIGNED BOTTOM LEFT. FRAME HAS WEAR DUE TO AGE. FRAME SIZE: 28.5 BY 24.5 INCHES. IMAGE SIZE: 18 BY 14 INCHES. The following information is courtesy of Jeff Kimmel, friend of the artist.

The first section was written October 2003 by John Virtue, biographer of the artist and Deputy Director, International Media Center, Florida International University. Leonard Brooks, an official Canadian war artist during World War II, is the dean of artists in the international art colony of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he has lived for more than half a century. Once he and his photographer-wife, Reva, settled in San Miguel in 1947, other Canadian artists such as York Wilson, Fred Taylor, Michael Forster and Fred Powell followed him there. He was not only the leading foreign artist, he was also for 25 years the director of the music department at the Mexican government's cultural center.

Born in Enfield, England, Nov. 7, 1911, Brooks attended school in Toronto and North Bay, Ontario, before dropping out at age 15 to study art. He washed dishes in the cafeteria of an Eaton's department store in Toronto while taking night classes in art at Central Technical High School. During the 1930s Depression, Brooks worked his way on a cattle boat to England, where he scrounged a livelihood in London's Chelsea art district. Once penniless in Spain, he appealed for help to famed British watercolorist Frank Brangwyn. Impressed by Brooks' paintings, Brangwyn sent him the funds needed to get back to Canada. Brooks' European experience helped convince the Toronto Board of Education that he had the equivalent of a high school education, allowing him to obtain his teacher's certificate.

He had taught art for six years at Northern Vocational High School in Toronto when he enlisted in the Navy. After designing the sets for the Navy Show, a musical by enlisted men and women which toured Canada and Europe, Brooks was appointed an official war artist in 1944 and sent to England. He often painted the mundane aspects of navy life, such as "Potato Peelers, " a watercolor of two sailors peeling potatoes aboard a Corvette doing escort duty in the Atlantic. A disciple of Canada's Group of Seven, all of whose members he knew, Brooks soon made friends with of one of Mexico's leading artists, the Communist muralist David Alfredo Siqueiros.

Siqueiros' presence in San Miguel eventually led to the closure of the art school where he and Brooks taught and the deportation at gunpoint from Mexico of Brooks, his wife and six other foreign teachers in 1950. The owner of the art school who triggered the deportation claimed the teachers, like Siqueiros, were Communists. Under the Mexican constitution, those deported can never again set foot in Mexico. But Brooks was able to use his influence with a former Mexican cabinet minister to whom he had given art lessons and the deportation order was lifted. Had this not happened, San Miguel would not have become the art colony it did because it would have had no foreign teachers attracting students from abroad.

"Leonard was responsible for bringing people to San Miguel, " said internationally known American-born cellist Gilberto Munguia, who holds an annual music festival in San Miguel. Then he got involved in music. When he arrived in San Miguel, it was a sleepy little town where magic was about to happen. During his 25 years as director of the music department, Brooks turned the sons and daughters of some of San Miguel's poorest workers into top Mexican musicians. He also organized his own chamber music quartet which enlisted the participation of top visiting musicians such as American jazz great Bobby Haggart.

Brooks' last one-man exhibition of his works in Canada was at the Edward Day Gallery in Toronto in 1998. He also held six one-man Toronto shows at the Roberts Gallery and seven at Eaton's art gallery. He was invited by the Mexican government to hold two-one man exhibitions at Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts, a rare honor for a foreign artist. Brooks' wife, Reva, was selected by the San Francisco Museum of Art in California as one of the top 50 women photographers of all time. On November 20, 2011 Leonard Brooks died at age 99. Leonard was painting and writing almost up to the end.

He just got tired and when it started to interfere with his art; he went with it. Aside from having more than 50 one-man expeditions of this art work (Canada, USA, Mexico, & Europe). Leonard was a prolific writer.

How to' art books and several, what I would liken as children's books about his cat, Sir Nobby. All were very popular and well known, particularly the art books. His last book entitled, In and Out of Mexico, was published just this month with all proceeds going to his favorite children's charity in San Miguel. Leonard was also was a wonderful poet; his last book of poems was also released this month Reflections of a Passionate Life is spectacular. He passed away at his home in San Miguel de Allende.