Leonard Long was born in Sydney in 1911 but his parents moved to Mittagong in the Southern highlands of New South Wales about six months after he was born. At school he was fortunate to have as one of his teachers a nun who was quite an accomplished artist. She encouraged Leonard to draw, which he did at every opportunity.

He studied at the East Sydney Technical College for a short period, but as an artist is mainly self-taught.

After leaving school Leonard was apprenticed to a watchmaker in Bowral. Here again he was fortunate as Walter Burchell, his employer, was also a skilful painter. He gave Leonard much encouragement.

Leonard’s first painting attempts were of birds, as he spent most of his spare time in the bush. Living for many years at the foot of Mount Flora, he spent much time perched high on the hill looking into the valley below and listening to lyrebirds. Without realising it at the time he was absorbing the atmosphere of the bush, and from this his love of the Australian bush was born. To this day his greatest pleasure comes from painting big valleys in the atmosphere and light of the early morning.

In his younger days, as a member of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales, he was fortunate in meeting artists and people in the art world such as Walter Taylor of the Grosvenor Galleries in Sydney. Through him Leonard met John Brakenreg, Sir William Ashton, Sir Lionel Lindsay, Robert Johnson, Doug Pratt and many others.

In 1934 he and his new bride, Mary, settled in Nowra, New South Wales where he gradually developed his talent as an artist and in 1955 Leonard sold his watch making business and became a full time painter.

Leonard has travelled extensively throughout Australia on his many painting and sketching trips. In 1958 he worked with Albert Namatjira for six weeks in central Australia, which resulted in a joint exhibition.

At various times throughout his career Leonard has been commissioned to paint in America, Ireland, France, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan and New Zealand.

He has had many successful solo exhibitions in all capital cities and many provincial centres throughout Australia. It is not unusual for his shows to be sold out, as was his 1982 “Roots of Australia” exhibition in London.

The Australian Government selected one of his paintings for presentation to the first Parliament of Zambia. Leonard is represented in HRH The Queen Mother’s Collection; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Vatican Collection, Rome; Howard Hinton Collection, Armidale; Bunbury Art Gallery, WA; National Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; Rockhampton Art Gallery, QLD; Dunedin Art Gallery, NZ; Benalla Art Gallery, VIC; Broken Hill Art Gallery, NSW; and in numerous commercial and private collections around the world.

He was awarded an OAM in the 1993 Australia Day Honours List for his services to art.