Jim Leon

Jim Leon (November 12, 1938 - January 14, 2002) was a visual artist who contributed illustrations for several publications.
=== Biography ===
Jim Leon spent his early years living in Birmingham and by the age of 5 was already recognized as having considerable artistic talent. After attending “Birmingham Fine Arts College” he moved and settled in Lyon, France and it was there that he began to first exhibit paintings. He soon became a very active participant in Lyon’s artistic circle, designing posters and costumes for theatre and other events. He also painted murals for various bars and restaurants in Lyon. His work during this period was exhibited in Lyon, Paris, Brussels, Delhi, Bombay, Cyprus etc.
=== Posters and illustrations ===
During a visit to London in 1968 he met Rick Wright from Pink Floyd and this lead to designing posters for the bands concerts. The following year while on his first trip to California, Jim created a cover for the underground magazine “The Berkeley Barb”. He moved to London in the early Seventies where he became involved with the UK underground scene, producing illustrations for several publications - Oz, International Times (it), Rolling Stone and Frendz.
Following a claimed mystical experience in 1973 while under the influence of LSD, Jim’s work dramatically changed and from then was mostly devoted to painting mystical visions of nature.
In 1975 he moved back to Lyon where he continued to paint and exhibit work.
In the latter years of his career, he spent time between London and Lyon with occasional visits to America, during which he taught students and designed sets and costumes for theatres & ballets as well as posters. 
===External links and sources===
* The Official Jim Leon Website
* Artists of the Underground, source of the artist biography duplicated here
* The Feuilleton Blog features a number of pictures of Leon's works
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