Norman Mac Leish, watercolor, signed lower left “Mac L 51.”
Norman Mac Leish was an annual winter visitor to St. Augustine and Naples, Florida. During the Depression, Mac Leish worked as director of the Chicago Art Project of the WPA. He was a winner of the Logan Prize awarded annually by the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1945 Mac Leish bought the well-known Octagon House at 62 Lighthouse Avene out on Anastasia Island. A brief review in the St. Augustine Record, February 7, 1956, notes, “Mr. MacLeish has some rich, somber tones in ‘Laborers’ House, Mexico.’ His Maine paintings show delightful detail peculiar to Maine and in ‘Penobscot Bay’ he gives a most effective view of the mountains and bay, beautifully simplified….” Mac Leish moved to Naples in 1956. He was the brother of famed American poet Archbald MacLeish.
Died: August 19, 1975, Naples, Florida. Education: Williams College; University of Pennsylvania; Art Institute of Chicago; In Europe. Membership: St. Augustine Arts Club; Artists Guild of St. Augustine; Naples Art Association. Exhibits: St. Augustine Arts Club, February 1945, watercolors, Turf Club, Pink House; SAAC, January 1946, Anastasia; SAAC, February 1946, Anastasia Light, Golden Gate Bridge; SAAC, March 1946, Arizona; St. Augustine Art Association, March 1950, honorable mention, Clothes Line; Palette and Brush Gallery, Aviles Street, February 1954; Aviles Gallery, February 1955; SAAA, February 1955, oil, Moonlight on the Shed; Artists Guild of St. Augustine, Ponce de Leon Hotel, January 1956; Brush and Palette Gallery, Aviles Street, February 1956; SAAA, Exchange Bank of St. Augustine, February 1956, Anastasia Inlet through Cedar Trees; Artists’ Guild of St. Augustine, farewell exhibit, January 1957: Naples Woman’s Club, December 9, 1958; Naples Art Association, December 1962, Indian Pool. Directory: Listed in the Naples City Directory in 1960 as an artist with a studio at 2567 Half Moon Walk.
