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Leonard Nobrega

Biography

My first vision of art came when I was three. My mother would read Golden Book stories to me; one favorite was The Owl and the Pussycat. She would then take colored paper and cut out several creatures from these stories. I would arrange them on my shelves in my room. This gave me a sense of color coordination at an early age. When I was in the 2nd grade, my teacher let me do a 4’x8’ Christmas nativity scene in colored chalk on the blackboard. The school was impressed with my mural and they called the local paper. The paper printed a picture story on the front page about the young artist. My brother paid for me to take Saturday classes at the Rhode Island School of Design. My abstract still-life of fruit in a bowl caught my instructor’s eye and she told me I had potential to become a serious artist.

My 7th grade drafting teacher was impressed with my architectural drafting ability. He was friends with a group of prominent architects and he sent me on an interview for a part time position after school. They took a chance on me and hired me as a junior draftsman office boy. This was the start of a lifelong architectural career. They liked my designs and rendering ability and I became their chief designer. Through the years, I held important positions in many architectural firms and my design and rendering abilities provided me with a decent living in this type of art.

Oil painting has always been a passion. I have a gift of seeing images while sleeping. These images have great depth and color and appear with stars in blue skies as if floating in space. They appear to me as very celestial images and are so vivid that after I wake, I can still see them for 5-7 minutes. This gives me enough time to sketch the image before it disappears. As these images appear to be floating in space, I have given my paintings names of planets and moons. I am now at a point where I have time to develop the many images that come to me in my dreams and will work to become a serious artist. I sincerely hope that art patrons will enjoy my art.