Background
His mother played violin until her hand was injured in a train door accident, she then took up painting and was teaching young Leonard to draw and paint.
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Leonard Borman
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Education
Borman studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago and under Joseph Pennell and George Bellows. He also attended a boys school and was an apprentice gardener at Kelways Nursery in the United Kingdom 1907 - 1913.
Career
He arrived in Sierra Madre, California in 1920 and was active in the Los Angeles area into the 1950s. He died in Canyonville, Oregon on August 15, 1995. Unfortunately she died when he was 3 years old.
In 1914 he went to Manitoba, Canada where he was also an apprentice at the Stephens Nursery.
One year later he entered the Canadian Army and fought in France World War I - 1915-1918. After suffering a severe injury to his arm and while recovering in hospital he found easy money by coloring black & white photos for the nurses.
After recovery he came to the United States and studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago under Pennell and Bellows 1919 -1921. He and a fellow artist came to California in 1921 where they visited most of California"s Parks, the Grand Canyon and Oregon to draw and paint from nature.
In 1921 they built a large studio and Leonard Borman produced some large, beautiful paintings, placed them in massive gold frames and traveled to New York hoping for a successful art sale.
The year was 1929 the Wall Street Stock Market Crash sent him home with different plans for his future in art They opened a picture frame shop and art gallery-studio in Pasadena, California. lieutenant was located next to a very popular restaurant where at night people standing in line to enter became very interested in the fine oil paintings Leonard displayed in his front window. One prominent lady introduced him to the group that would commission hundreds of animal paintings over the next 20 some years.
Some of these prominent collectors were ( Harold South Chase of Santa Barbara, Firestone Tire, Singer Sewing Machine, Conard Ship Lincolnshire, Pillsbury Company, WEBoeing, DuPont, Sebastian Cabot actor, Mae West actress).
The air quality in Pasadena California in the 1920s, 30s & 40s was extremely poor due to smog and was causing Leonard great discomfort so they closed the store in 1955 and moved to the desert. Years earlier the Bormans bought 20 acres with a cabin in the desert, near Joshua Tree California. Over the years they turned it into a comfortable home, studio, & art gallery.
Leonard Borman painted and May framed pictures, and his patrons came to buy and place orders for the next 45 years.
