Leonard Long

Who was Leonard Long?

Leonard Hugh Long OAM was an Australian painter of the Australian School of landscape painters.

Born in Summer Hill, New South Wales, the son of a baker, Long was a landscape artist in oils. He was raised in Mittagong on the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales and showed an early aptitude for drawing. He painted his first painting at the age of 16. He started his working life as a watch-maker in nearby Bowral later moving to Nowra for work.

As a young man Long was a cyclist and rode his push bike long distances including the trip from Nowra back to Mittagong to see his sweetheart Mary whom he later married. In 1934 he and Mary settled in Nowra where they raised their family, in 1936 having twins Ray and Barry and in 1938 daughter Carmel. By 1939 Long had become more seriously interested in Landscape Painting and spent more and more of his spare time painting. After returning from his civil service during the Second World War as a precision instrument maker, he sold his watch-making business to his partner and began full-time painting in 1955.