Leo started painting at an early age and excelled at art during his school days, even selling paintings while he was still at school! After leaving school he went to Dublin to paint portraits and street scenes as a living. He then moved to London and continued to paint but had to take part time jobs in gardening and engineering to help finance his stay but his first love was always art.

He then moved to France and after a period of time returned home to Ireland. He had his first exhibition in Northern Ireland in 1977 in Down Patrick which was very successful with commissions to follow but felt he wasn’t finished traveling and left again for France, traveling through Normandy and continuing to paint. He tried a spell in Paris but found the chaotic life-style too much and returned to the countryside where he could concentrate on his work with little distraction.

He traveled through Europe and ended up in Spain moving from town to town, meeting fellow artists, sculptors and writers, and then eventually settling in Marbella for a period of time.

Returning to Northern Ireland in the early 90′s he had built himself a reputation and was in constant demand for commissions and had a number of successful exhibitions leading to numerous prizes in art competitions for his horse paintings.

In recent years Leo has won many prestigious awards including the Anna Cheyne Award for the first artwork to be accepted for Lisburn City, the Northern Art Prize (all Ireland) and numerous others for horse and landscape paintings. Leo’s work is becoming increasingly collectable with his distinctive and individual style; his work is popular with collectors as far as the continent and the USA.