Background
Leonard Filgate was born August 26, 1947, in San Francisco, California.
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Leonard Filgate
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Early life and education
His professional art career began at 16 when he sold his first painting. After high school, his art career was put on hold for five years while he served in the United States Merchant Marine. In 1970, Filgate returned to his self-study of art and embarked on a lifelong career as an artist and illustrator.
Filgate is a self-taught artist and illustrator.
Since 1970, he has created commissioned works for private individuals, several projects for the United States Navy, reproductions of Japanese screens, props for a Warner Brothers Television series, theatrical backdrops, and storyboards.
In 1997 he began work on the creation of illustrations for the Rip Squeak project and continued developing and painting in that theme, until 2007, at which time he chose to explore other avenues with his art and illustration. Filgate has illustrated five children"s books and two arts books, which have sold over 500,000 copies to date.
He is currently working on new Rip Squeak and numerous other illustration and fine art projects.
Membership
He was honored as the featured illustrator for the 2003 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, has been included in the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance "Every Picture Tells a Story" traveling exhibition, had a major solo exhibition in 2005/2006 at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, Delaware, and is an artist member of the Society of Illustrators in New York City.
