Leonard H. Reedy

1899 - 1956

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Leonard Howard Reedy exhibited an aptitude for painting and drawing early. At the age of 10 he was drawing Indians, cowboys, and bandits in the margins of his textbooks. A great admirer of Frederic Remington’s work, Reedy enrolled in the Chicago Institute and Academy of Fine Arts to further his skills as a Western artist, in much the same style as Remington.

Reedy spent much of his life on the move, traveling with Indians and living and working in logging and mining camps. Through his travels and various occupations, he became intimately familiar with a variety of natural environments - from the plains to the mountains, to the desert – as well as the cultures of those who made their living working the land.

Reedy’s preferred method of painting was to work with watercolors on relatively small sheets of paper. His paintings can still be found gracing the walls of some Chicago restaurants where he traded his paintings for meals.

UNTITLED (RIDING THROUGH THE SNOW) Watercolor on Paper 8 ¼ x 11 ¼