Born in Brooklyn in 1931, David A. Leffel spent 11 years of his childhood battling a bone disease in various hospitals.  He used this time to hone his drawing abilities. This passion eventually led him to enroll in Parsons School of Design, as well as Fordham University.  At the Art Students League of New York, he flourished under Frank Mason and ultimately taught there for 25 years. In 1992 Leffel and his partner, the distinguished painter Sherrie McGraw, moved to Taos, where their studios overlook the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Well-known to art students worldwide through his bestselling books and videos, Leffel conducts workshops throughout the country. “When I first started painting, I just thought it was something I’d like to do — and if I could make some money at it, then I didn’t have to get a job!” says Leffel. “As I went further into it, I needed confirmation that the things I was discovering in paint were true. I found that if it was true in painting, it was also true in life. Painting is like an interlocking set of relationships—color, edges, values, thick and thin, etc. Life is the same. Everything is interrelated. All of life is like one big, interlocking relationship. Everything you do has a consequence to everything else.”

davidleffel.com