Leigh Hewson-Bower

From an early age, Leigh Hewson, as he was then, showed a passion for drawing and painting; in his father’s hardware shop in Melbourne he would sit at the counter drawing for hours at a time, much to the customers amusement.

In his early teens, he made copies of his favourite artisits work, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Eyck, these were the people that provided endless fascination for any young artist. It was about this time that Leigh sold his first painting, a nude study, for the sum of $400 dollars, which seemed like a fortune in 1963.

After four years of study at Caulfied where he was awarded the annual prize three years running, he left with a Diploma in Fine Art/Painting. Several years of working in commercial photography followed, travelling to Europe and South East Asia on various assignments. Exhibitions of photography and large abstract paintings at Consortium Galleries in Adelaide attracted favourable reviews.

In 1983 Leigh moved to Perth to help set up a production company for the construction and painting of theatre sets. The years that followed saw him painting 20 metre wide cloths for the Australian Ballet, full sets for the West Australian Ballet and Opera, and the Australian Opera, and in addition, pursuing a career as an artist, exhibiting at Wylde’s Art Exhibitions.

Over the last few years the success of his landscape and seascape paintings has allowed him to devote his full time to the pursuit of excellence that began many years ago with a youg boy fascinated by the astonishing technical skill shown by the Masters.

Wylde’s Australian Art continues to exhibit Leigh’s Hewson-Bowers beautiful paintings today.