Leonard Lester was born in England in 1870 and lived to be 82 years old.

In 1889 at age nineteen, he emigrated to Canada. A few years later, he moved south to the United States briefly living in Kansas City before settling in Pasadena. In the Los Angeles area, he found work as a pen and ink artist for The Art Amateur.

He left the west coast to pursue his art studies in New York for two years, and returned to Pasadena where he established his studio. He also kept studios in Redlands, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles.

He advanced his art education further moving to Germany, studying in Munich and Dresden from 1900 - 1902. From 1907 to 1916, he taught art for nine years at the Raja Yoga Schools in Cuba.

He returned to Pasadena in 1916, and remained there until the stock market crash of 1929. For health reasons, he then moved to the dryer climate of Point Loma in San Diego, County. He was a member of the Raja Yoga community called "Lomaland" where he was an active artist and teacher. At times he resided at the nearby Julian Eltinge Ranch near Alpine, where he often painted the local mountain scenery.

Leonard Lester is known for his accurate drawings and atmospheric paintings. His works reside in the Orange County Museum, the Sante Fe Railroad Museum, and the San Diego Museum.

About Lomaland
Lomaland was a utopian culteral communal experiment of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society. In time, this community on a plot of seaside land became a vibrant "white city," a center of learning, culture and social reform. Many artists came to live and work at Lomaland, including Marguerite Lemke Barton, Grace “Gay” Betts, Maurice Braun, Benjamin Gordon, Leonard Lester, Marian Plummer Lester, Reginald Willoughby Machell, and Edith White.

Souces: Artists in California 1786 - 1940, Edan Milton Hughes, 3d ed.; http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/80fall/theosophy.htm