Thomas A. Leek was born in 1932.  A watercolorist who was central to the development of the art program at Southern Utah State College, he now follows his own personal artistic pursuits on a full-time basis.

Don Olsen, one of the foremost nonrepresentational painters in Utah, was Leek’s instructor at Jordan High School.  Leek was a graduate of the University of Chicago (1956–60).  He earned a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago (1960), and an MFA from Brigham Young University (1961).  He pursued graduate study at the University of California, Los Angeles and at the University of Iowa.          

Leek was a full professor of art at Southern Utah State University in 1978 where he was chairman of the art department (1961–78), and founder of the Braithwaite Gallery. He was an adjunct professor and gallery director at Weber State University before taking early retirement to pursue a full-time studio practice in Salt Lake City.  In the 1980s he became nationally famous for his watercolors of the southern Utah desert.

Eternal Forces (1990) is part of the Springville Museum of Art’s permanent collection.  Elements aux Mauves (1984) is one of his nonrepresentational works.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from autobiographical information supplied by Thomas Leek.