Leonard Brooks, at 95, can’t stop creating
By Bob Kelly, Nov 24, 2006

Book signing by Leonard Brooks Thursday, November 30, 5:30pm  La Tienda, Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25

“For 80 years I have watched water and color make my world of watercolor,” writes Leonard Brooks in his new book. “I have traveled and painted, experimented in realistic and abstract mode. Never have I tired of this difficult medium of the artist to express his creativity and his world.” 

Brooks, who just turned 95, will sign copies of My Watercolor World at its San Miguel launch November 30, in the Biblioteca Pública.

The book includes 76 watercolors and wash drawings done in Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Venezuela, Yugosla-via, Puerto Rico, the United States, Canada and Mexico, including more than some 15 scenes in San Miguel, Atotonilco, Comonfort and Pozos. The signing is part of a preview of the reopening of the library’s gift store, which will stock the artist’s books and signed copies of his posters. 

Brooks works in his studio almost daily, perfecting the techniques that have won him an international reputation, especially as a watercolorist. His fourth one-man show in Mexico, featuring 35 of his favorite works, attracted a large crowd last month to the Museo Nacional de la Acuarela Mexicana, or National Mexican Watercolor Museum, in Mexico City. 

Brooks is an adept and versatile writer as well. Starting in 1955, he published eight books on watercolor techniques, all of which he says “were very successful.” 

He also is collaborating with his Siamese cat on Sir Knobby, A Cat-ography, which Brooks is illustrating with 50 drawings.

“Sir Knobby tells of life in an artist’s home in Mexico, how he gets along with the other cats, Whiskers and Florence, his philosophy, and God knows what else. He becomes a member of the academy, he plays the violin and piano, dances, writes poems and teaches meow talk, or how to talk like a cat. Knobby doesn’t want fame. Knobby says, ‘I don’t want to be bothered with people coming to see me.’”

Another book Brooks is working on is an update of an illustrated biography, In and Out of Mexico, that he started after he and his late wife, the photographer Reva Brooks, were among a group of students at Bellas Artes in San Miguel who were deported to the US in 1948 for taking part in a boycott of the arts school organized by their teacher, the muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, an avowed communist. “We never talked politics, only art,” Brooks said. They soon gained reentry with the help of a Mexican army general who had taken painting lessons from Brooks. “He became a very good watercolorist,” Brooks said. The experience, he added, “made me love Mexico more than ever.”

Next year, he will observe the 60th anniversary of his arrival in San Miguel with Reva, who soon achieved recognition for her photographs of everyday people. In 2003, he published Reva Brooks Photographs as his tribute to his wife, then living in a nursing home. Suffering from Alzheimer’s, she wasn’t aware of the publication of the book or of a joint exhibit in Mexico of her pictures and the work of Siqueiros, who used some of the people in her photos as models for his murals. 

The book’s cover photograph of a mother grieving over the death of her child, “Elodia,” appeared in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s “The Family of Man” exhibit in 1955, the most viewed photographic show in history. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art selected her as one of the top 50 women photographers of all time and used the photo of Elodia’s dead baby to illustrate her works in 1975.

Brooks had won acclaim before moving to San Miguel, having been elected in 1938 to the Royal Academy of Arts in Canada, where he grew up after being born in England. He is also popular in Canada for his paintings as an official navy artist during World War II, ranging from sailors doing ordinary tasks, such as peeling potatoes, to scenes aboard a minesweeper off Normandy before D-Day. 

In San Miguel, Brooks became the director of music without salary at Bellas Artes, where he taught young Mexican children to play the violin and viola, serving in that post until 1984. He arranged for the Fine Arts Quartet of Chicago to perform in San Miguel, a forerunner to the 27-year-old Festival de Música de Camara. Brooks did collages for the festival’s first 10 posters and also has created posters for the Festival de San Miguel.

After Reva’s death in 2004, Brooks said he stopped listening to classical music records because “Reva knew every note of the pieces. It was too sad. We were married 65 years. That’s a damned long time.”

Brooks, who started listening to the records again recently, sees a connection between his love for music, writing and painting. “Listening to music all those years helped my painting and playing the violin. It’s contributing something. They’re all related. In the days when I played the violin well, I painted well. Creativity is the putting together of things in a form.

“There’s a connective tissue between writing, painting and music. I don’t know what. Some driving force. I can’t stop. I work at this memory business by writing ideas down. It’s great training for the mind. Sometimes I dream about an idea or go through dozens of my sketchbooks. I remembered a little poem I wrote 50 years ago about a great gnarled old tree. I went down the lawn and I painted an old tree on my property.

“I’m healthy enough and fortunate enough to have a great creative drive, which is one of the best gifts you can have. One thing to growing old is to avoid stress, if possible. Don’t worry about things you can’t do anything about.”

The artist’s role is “to create the civilized things necessary to keep away from the horrors of the world,” Brooks said. 

Brooks ends the foreword to his book with these lines: “The watercolor box still awaits me—the lovely white surface of paper still a challenge. The world is an endless subject facing me everyday. What more could an artist ask!”

Sneak preview weekend heralds La Tienda’s reopening
By Atención staff

4-day Sneak Preview of La Tienda 

Thursday, November 30–Sunday, December 3

Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25

Everyone loves a sneak preview, and “La Tienda,” the Biblioteca Pública’s gift shop and bookstore, has a tempting treat when it reopens its doors. For a few hours over four days, we’ll whet your appetite with a sampling of the great buys that will be offered and a chance to win selected merchandise.

Throughout the weekend, special activities are planned to give you a taste of what’s to come. There will be author autographing sessions, live music, a “Coffee Sip” with the Biblioteca’s very own Mexican Blend, and children’s story time and activities. Throughout the sneak preview weekend, you will also find some of what the new library store will offer San Miguel all year round: great title selections, special musical features, San Miguel’s best coffee, Ticket Central events, and gifts and stationery selections. La Tienda is a place where you can explore many of the wonderful treasures and discoveries that are Mexico. 

Artful Expressions

On November 30, renowned Canadian author and artist Leonard Brooks will be at the Biblioteca to sign his new book, My Watercolor World (see page 10 for full story.) Joining Brooks are San Miguel Chamber Music Festival director Gilberto Mungia with collectors’ prints of festival poster art, Bob Hesdorfer with colorful hand-crafted kites, photographer Cristóbal Doolin with high-quality prints of familiar and unfamiliar San Miguel scenes, and hand-crafted knit items by Alegría Scully.

Writings & Rhythms 

Ten celebrated authors who live and work in San Miguel will meet their readers and sign books as a part of the celebration of the Biblioteca’s new store. 

This is a good opportunity to meet authors and to purchase signed copies of beautiful books to give as Christmas gifts.

Part of the mission of the the San Miguel Authors’ Sala is to maintain bookshelves where local authors’ books are featured and available for purchase. These bookshelves are located in the Biblioteca’s Tienda and the Authors’ Sala is eager to be a part of the festivities that will mark the reopening of the store. The Authors’ Sala “mini-book fair” will take place in the courtyard of the Biblioteca on Friday, December 1, from 4 to 6pm. 

Featured books will include nonfiction, fiction, poetry and photography. Participating authors include Manja Argue, Wim Coleman, William J. Conaway, Robert de Gast, Joseph Dispenza, Leah Feldon, Gerard Helferich, Susan Page, Pat Perrin, Lulu Torbet, Carol Schmidt and Masako Takahashi. For more information about the San Miguel Authors’ Sala, visit their website at www.sanmiguelauthors.com.

Claude Lawrence on saxophone and other special guests will provide musical entertainment.

Kids’ Stuff 

Local radio personality Yolanda Lacarieri starts the morning with storytelling in Spanish, and the young members of the ANYÉL choir will sing a delightful repertoire of Mexican and international songs.

To keep the kids busy, there will be art activities for the little ones and fun with a giant chess set for the not-so-small.

Sunday Special

The Sunday morning treat for the House & Garden tour early birds is a raffle of a fabulous gift basket with samples of some of the items from La Tienda, including books, CDs, and posters. The winner will be drawn at 11:30am. The traditional Estudiantina group will entertain.

For additional information, call the Biblioteca at 152-0293 and ask for manager Stephanie Hough.

Schedule of events


Thursday, Nov. 30, 4–6pm, Artful Expressions

4pm, Meet local artists, jewelers and photographers 

5:30pm, Book signing with artist Leonard Brooks 


Friday, Dec. 1, 4–6pm, Writings & Rhythms

4pm, Book signings with local authors from the Authors’ Sala 

4:30pm, Café Santa Ana Coffee Sip

5pm, Local musicians play & autograph their CDs


Saturday, Dec. 2, 10am–12pm, Kids’ Stuff 

10am, Yolanda Lacarieri reads a children’s Christmas story in Spanish

10:15am, Giant chess game for beginners

10:30am, Color Me Logo Contest

11am, SMA children’s choir, led by Elsmarie Norby 

11:30am, Tumbao Demonstration & sale of pre-Hispanic instruments

Sunday, Dec. 3, 9:30–11:30am 

9:30am, Gift basket raffle before the House & Garden Tour

11am, Estudiantina performs traditional music

11:30am, Gift basket raffle winner will be drawn