Leo E. Osborne

Black Rock Creek, 36" wide, mixed media wall relief

1988

Born in 1947, Leo recalls his preschool years living in Marshfield, Massachusetts at his grandmother’s farm, where chickens, ducks and a goat named Mary, after his grandmother, were the run of the day. He spent endless hours climbing trees, flying kites and walking along stonewalls where in summer the tiger lilies grew well over his head. He began schooling in Pembroke, Massachusetts where his parents, Walter and Judith took up residence on the shores of Big Sandy Pond. This brought Leo years of woodland adventures training wild Mallard ducks to feed from his hand and to follow him into the house with their ducklings. He still climbed trees, but with a more dangerous spirit about him and he is one of the fortunate souls who can remember, “swinging from birches.” It was in those forest settings that he first felt the world of spirit…the old souls that were present in those sacred places. During high school years, he won a scholarship from the Art Instruction School of Minneapolis and entered a home schooling course. This was furthered when he was trained at New England School of Art in Boston. He recalls wonderful instructors who were all painters from the Gloucester School of Painting and taught Leo about the “finer” side of art even though he was taking a course in commercial illustration. Early showings of Osborne’s paintings were seen around Cape Cod, where he spent many summers working and surfing. He recalls that around 1968 he was the guiding force behind an art event in Pembroke that they called the Pauper’s Art Festival. Moving to the Maine Coast in 1970, he “dropped out” in order to live in the woods, 2 miles from pavement. In the years to come he worked a short stint at Sears, actually selling auto parts {unbelievable} and later to work in the fish industry and then as a shepherd of 300 sheep and to put pin stripping on autos. He began painting signs to make money and then to carve them in 1974 when his daughter Rachel was born. Thus began the evolution into his bird carving period where he showed throughout North America and won many of his numerous and prestigious awards. In 1990 he moved to the beautiful Pacific Northwest and furthered his interest in bronze sculpture and has since produced many works. He is found often at the foundry overseeing new pieces. In 2002, Leo and Jane Lane moved into a new location on Guemes Island. Captivated by the love and joyful spirit of this island, they have together created MILKWOOD STUDIO. This cottage by the sea is now referred to as “a living museum”. The studio, sculpture gardens, home and guest cottage are fused together as one entity. Leo continues to investigate many mediums and potentialities in art, as with his paintings, which he refers to as “acrylusion”, the fusion of acrylic paint over gold leaf panels. He refuses to get locked into a niche or play the same tune over.