LEIGH  PARRY  RBA PPPS  SEA  Hon. PSC 

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Leigh Parry was a member of the Welland Valley Art Society from the 1950s, soon after he came to live and work in Stamford as a GP and just a few years after the Society was founded in 1945: he first exhibited in this very gallery 70 years ago!   His  work has been widely exhibited locally, nationally and internationally.

He was never far away from pencil or paintbrush and paper, wherever he was: out walking, at a family gathering, at weddings, the proms, school plays, concerts, cricket matches, on a train or even in his consulting rooms on the corner of St Mary's street where he would cheer up young patients by drawing elephants for them on his prescription pad, or a favourite teddy during a home visit.

He later became a senior member and trustee of the Pastel Society UK serving  as president from 1983 to 1988, a member of the Society of Equestrian Artists, an Honorary Member of the Pastel Society of Canada and a Council Member of the Royal Society of British Artists.

His work was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, the Royal Cambrian Academy, the Paris Salon, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 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.

He was a regular exhibitor at a large number of smaller provincial galleries and  held several  one -man shows in London and the provinces showcasing a wide variety of subjects and techniques covering his journeys to  Canada, India, China and Tibet.

Having been  much involved in organising medical cover from the start of the Burghley Horse Trials in 1961, he was later commissioned by the British Horse Society to paint pictures of the  event which were published as a  limited edition print. 

Private commissions include a series of paintings  of Olympic and other event horses competing at Badminton, Burghley and Chatsworth as well as landscapes, buildings, and other equestrian subjects.

He is mentioned in the Dictionary of British Equestrian Artists and  wrote and illustrated a series of articles on drawing and painting Equestrian subjects for the Artist and Leisure Painter.

He won a number of  awards including the Cuneo Medal  with the Society of Equestrian Artists,  the Daler Rowney Award,  Fores Gallery Award,  Frank Herring Award, Willi Hoffman- Guth Award  with the Pastel Society, Distinction Award with the Pastel Society of  Canada and  'Mention Honorable' at the Paris Salon.

John Ward CBE RA said of his work: “A lot of people paint in watercolour  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.”

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