LEIGH PARRY
A lifelong artist
Leigh Parry started drawing as soon as he could hold a pencil and never stopped. He was also a doctor, a GP, but he managed to keep drawing, painting and exhibiting pictures in his spare time while in practice, and occasionally in his consulting room or on a home visit when he drew animals to cheer up his young patients.
Art was Leigh's full time occupation throughout his long retirement. He was a member and trustee of the Pastel Society UK and president from 1983 to 1988. He was particularly interested in horses – a keen rider himself - and became a member of the Society of Equestrian artists.
He was commissioned by the British Horse Society to paint pictures of the Burghley Horse Trials which were published as a limited edition print. He wrote and illustrated a series of articles on drawing and painting horses for The Artist magazine and was commissioned to produce a series of paintings of Olympic and other event horses competing at Badminton, Burghley and Chatsworth Horse Trials.
Leigh was also an Honorary Member of the Pastel Society of Canada and a Council Member of the Royal Society of British Artists.
Leigh's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, the Royal Cambrian Academy, the Paris Salon, the National Gallery of Canada, the New English Art Club and the Discerning Eye at the Mall Galleries in London and for a number of years annually at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery.
John Ward CBE RA said of his work: “A lot of people paint in watercolours but few have the knack or gift for the medium that Leigh Parry has; he can touch in horses, humans and awkward things, like horse boxes, freshly and skilfully. His travel sketches have conviction, capturing a moment delightfully.”
He died in 2017 and his family has decided that these pictures should be put up for sale as they have all run out of wall space.