About The Artist

Leonard Aitken is an australian artist and has been painting for 30 years. He has a love for all types of art, music, literature and film. Lenny prefers to paint realistic and surrealistic works. The natural world around him is his first inspiration, but most of his work is transformed by a prodigious imagination. His output is prolific and doesn’t confine itself just to painting but also music (composing, playing piano), writing (stories, poetry), film and animation. Leonard discovered he could paint at the age of 15, but it wasn't until the age of 32 that he decided to get serious and enter university. In 1995 he completed a Bachelor of Arts (visual arts) at Charles Sturt University, (Wagga Wagga), which he passed with distinction. Since then he has completed a Diploma of Education and has taught art at schools, Tafe, various adult education institutions and at home. However art is his first love. “I 'm effervescent and lively and can't cope with just doing one thing all the time. I need constantly to experiment, use different mediums and explore different genres.” Usually he has about 20 paintings “in progress” at once, while simultaneously working on various musical, writing and animation projects. His paintings are usually built up in many layers of stains and glazes. His floral and landscape paintings tend to concentrate on the properties of light and colour and have a calm beauty despite their brightness and vivid detail. Some of his more "whimsical" paintings have been described as resembling "animation stills"; and his animations as having the quality of "paintings come to life".