LeRoy Nichols, Sarasota, Bradenton, oil on canvas, 15 by 30 inches, signed lower right and dated 1988.
The descendant of two generations of career U. S. Army officers, Roy Nichols was born at Plattsburgh Barracks, New York in 1928, soon moving with his family to Georgia. He grew up in the South. Planning a career in the military, Nichols attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and served two years in the U. S. Army Airborne. Using the GI Bill Nichols enrolled at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota and found his true calling. He began teaching art at the Bradenton Art Center for the 1957-58 winter season, giving demonstrations of his work to members of the Art League of Manatee County. In 1959, now married, he was invited to the Florida Federation of Art’s new headquarters at the DuBarry Mansion near DeLand as a summer resident artist. A popular teacher Nichols taught numerous workshops at art centers in the South, serving as Artist-in-Residence and Director of the Fontana Summer School of Artin in Fontana Dam, North Carolina, from 1966 to 1995. In 2007 Nichols was still in Bradenton, giving evening classes in landscape painting at the Art Center of Manatee and summer classes in Burnsville, North Carolina. Born: 1928, Plattsburgh Barracks, New York. Education: United States Military Academy at West Point, New York; Ringling School of Art with Loran Wilford; with sculptor Leslie Posey. Membership: Art League of Manatee County; Sarasota Art Association; Florida Artist Group, 1954-2018; Florida Federation of Art. Exhibits: Art League of Manatee County, All Members Exhibit, October 1955, 209 Ninth St. W. Bradenton, oils, New England Farmer, The Round House; Art League of Manatee County, 1955, one man show; Manatee County Art Center, March 4-16, 1956, exhibit with Wes Warren; Art League of Manatee County, December 1956; Florida Artist Group, annual exhibit and symposium, Morse Gallery, Rollins College, Winter Park, May 1957, Morning Wash; Florida State Fair, Tampa, February 1958; Bradenton Art Center, Member’s Show, November 1958; Sarasota Art Association, Flowers and Landscape Exhibition, January 1959, Corner Grocery-B.W.I.; Bradenton Art Center at Manatee Junior College, January 1959, Lonesome Beach; Sarasota Art Association, 9th Annual, March 1959, Ringling Museum, Central Avenue Gauntlet; Art League of Manatee County, Member’s Annual Juried Exhibit, March 1959, Summer Noon, Treasure Hunters; Sarasota Art Association, Members’ Annual Juried Exhibition, February 1960, Sunday Afternoon. Directory: Listed in the Sarasota City Directory as an artist in 1959-1960, with studio at 1959 Ringling Blvd.
LeRoy Nichols, Sarasota, Bradenton, oil on canvas 20 by 24 inches, signed lower left Nichols.
