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Lenny Thomas was born in Danville, Virginia USA where he lived with his family of 6 sisters and 6 brothers until the age of nine when he went to live with The Miles family. They wanted to help his family by offering to assist in raising one of their children. Lenny said he heard Mrs Miles discussing the arrangements with his parents and asked to be the one to go live with the Miles, after begging his parents to go they finally gave in when Mrs Miles explained what he would be doing and promise them that she would send him home for the weekends and holidays. This was the arrangements until he was 15.
At 15 he return to live with his family. Lenny said that was the first time he had his own room and bed plus the Miles had a 12” black and white Television “man that was living”.
In 1961 at the age of 16 he moved to New York City, where he spent a great deal of time hanging out in Greenwich Village soaking up all he could on the arts. His early years in New York City he had several jobs one of which was working for the “The Mother of Stage Lighting” Jean Rosenthal, in her Stage Equipment Business. Miss Rosenthal was one of the first women to design lighting for The Broadway Stage.
Lenny went on to work for the Roundabout Theater where he worked Off Broadway as a Lighting Technician and Stage Manager working on such plays as Shakespeare’s “King Lear” and “Much Ado About Nothing”, George Bernard Shaw’s "Candida" to name a few.
Lenny also noted that while living in New York City he spent a great deal of his time hanging out in Greenwich Village where he had the pleasure of watching Morris Katz’s and other artists at the time painting on the streets in and around Washington Square. It was at this time that Lenny decided he would try his hand at painting. Mr. Katz’s was more than willing to share information and pointers on art with him and others. Lenny took advantage of that and started painting in 1967.
During this time he also had the good fortune of meeting and becoming a friend of one of Jamaica’s greatest artists Carlton Ingleton. Lenny says most of what he knows about painting he learned from Carlton while modeling for him. “He knew I wanted to paint” so in between posing Carlton would teach him the art of painting. I loved the feel of painting with oil paints so he spent a great deal of time teaching me mixing and shading which I use in all my paintings to this very day. Carlton also taught me about the Creative Spirit and how to tap into this source of help and guidance”.
In 1970 Lenny and a couple of friends Don Williams and EJ Chandler recorded a record for Spring Records as the group The Boy’s In The Band a one hit wonder.
In 1973 Lenny was invited to move to California by Harvey Fuqua of the singing group “The Moonglows” to work in his record company, Honey Records. From 1973 to 1978 he lived in Oakland, California where he spent most of his time working for Mr. Fuqua as Assistant Producer and Songwriter.
In 1978 Lenny moved back to New York City where he pursued a career as an Independent Record Producer and Songwriter. In 1986 while working as a part-time taxi driver he met and fell in love with Clair Mc Taggart who was visiting from Toronto, Canada. After a brief long distance courtship they got married and Lenny moved to Toronto where they presently live.
After not painting for more than 26 years in 1999 Lenny went back to his first love which was painting and to date has painted several hundred paintings.
“I get a great deal of support from my wife Clair, daughter Kayla and other family member. I also draw a lot of inspiration from my friends. I paint Images that I love such as Landscapes, Cityscapes and Abstracts. I hope you enjoy your visit to my web site”.
All Paintings are originals and one of a kind. |