Leith Eaton - Founder, Chairman
American born and self-taught Artist Leith Eaton, a direct descendant of King Edward III of England, is also related to Daniel Boone and the founder of Wells Fargo. She began her career in real estate at the age of 17. She later started her own company, Leith Scott Thomas International Realty, Inc. and became known as the Realtor for Royalty through being featured in newspapers and the national television show PM Magazine as such. Later she became Director of Sales and Marketing for Arvida Realty Corp. and JMB Realty Corp., where she achieved tremendous success that lasted throughout her Real Estate career. In addition, she was President of the Pulitzer Collection, Inc., a design company with Lilly and Peter Pulitzer’s daughter Liza, where she began a design career through the medium of three-dimensional design. Her early collectors include the Royal Families of Italy and Yugoslavia, Prince Pierre d’Arenburg, Frank Sinatra, Joan Baruch Bové, Lilly Pulitzer and others. Leith started her charitable work as a member of the Junior League. In the 1970’s she became a member of the Executive Committee of the Atlantic Foundation of the Performing Arts and began helping to raise funds f or the foundation.
She gained fast recognition as one of America’s leading designers. After experimenting with a variety of media, she decided to devote most of her time to the world of painting. Leith found she could best express herself through means of a heavy impasto technique using an alla prima application. She has made a dramatic impact in contemporary art circles with her evolutionary form of painting called Scintillism.
Leith first introduced her work in 1991 in a solo exhibition held in Wilmington, Delaware, hosted by Alvenia Bridges, best known for the press and public relations services she has provided for clients such as Stevie Wonder and The Rolling Stones. In 1992, the second of her exhibitions in Manhattan was given by Elizabeth Ives Bartholet, who brought Cubism to America and discovered Modigliani.
In October 1992, Dr. Jasna Pervan Huertley, critic and art historian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the United Nations, brought the Artist’s style into focus. “There are many exciting features in Leith’s work. The first impression is one of vivid and exciting colors that represent an enhanced reality. Then there is an almost sculptured effect, which is obtained through a layer of colors. Each piece is painted, and then paint is laid over, again and again. It is only after these steps have been completed that the work is produced in its final form known as Scintillism”.
Dr. Huertley best sums up Leith’s work; “It gives the impression of a sculptured impressionism. Her masterful technique complements and enhances her exciting subject matter. It is an innovation in the technique of painting. Leith is a dedicated artist who balances talent, skill, technique and creativity with exceptional dedication and ease. She is an innovative artist who has created a new trend.”
Leith has painted in the Continental United States and Puerto Rico and presently has her studio in Beverly Hills, California. She has had over twenty solo plus over twenty group exhibitions since 1991. Leith has been listed in the 1994 and 1995 editions of Art in America. She was commissioned to do a portrait of President George H. W. Bush and Congressman Wayne T. Gilchrest of Maryland, which is on display in the Halls of Congress in Washington. Leith was also commissioned by CBS Sports and was televised live on the 17th tee during the AT&T Pro-Am Tournament at Pebble Beach, 1995, painting Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
Leith also started the Multi-Media company Audio-Visual Productions, Inc. They did assignments for President George H. W. Bush, the White House and Secret Service along with a Virginia Slims National television commercial and several documentaries. She has served as a Board Member of Eisenhower Medical Center Auxiliary for over ten years, creating their Art and Healing Program and helping to raise funds that benefitted Eisenhower Medical Center hospital, the Blood Bank, the Betty Ford Center, the Annenberg Center and the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center.
Leith founded the World Federation of Nations Foundation in 1998 which promotes world peace through education and The Arts. Through the foundation and through her own efforts she has also produced the first of a series of documentaries entitled “Peace for Profit” that explores the prosperity that is being wasted in areas of the world beset by hatred and conflict. The first documentary was filmed in Israel. She has also been a Board Member of the American Institute of Fine Arts and is founder and President of the International Arts Association and the Renaissance International Awards, with the first recipient being Kirk Douglas.
In January 1996, Leith was in Washington, D.C. to display her solo exhibition, “America The Beautiful”, held in the Cannon House Rotunda of Congress. Coinciding
with the exhibition, she painted a commissioned portrait of Senator Bob Dole, which was unveiled in January of 1996 in Congress. An exhibition, originally scheduled through Senator John Warner and later through Senator Dianne Feinstein, was held in the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda in March of 2004. Leith was also commissioned to paint 20 paintings for an installation through the Fine Arts Council of the City of Los Angeles, California in 2005.
Additional events are charity fundraisers for "Kids in Solitude", April 20th, 2002 at the California Club and "The World Federation of Nations Foundation” in May and June of 2002 in California Federal Bank in Beverly Hills. Through the International Arts Association and the World Federation of Nations Foundation many other charities have been assisted such as the Media Center Ballet Company and Bethune Theatredanse.
Leith is registered in the Smithsonian Institute as Official Artist for the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego. In addition, she created a painting for the 1997 Palm Springs Nortel Film Festival, The Palm Springs Film and Entertainment Museum and the Desert Sunshine Express. Leith was asked to be the Official Artist for the 50th Anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, has scheduled a traveling tour to the Kremlin and Hermitage Museum in Russia, and was invited to do a joint venture with the Annenberg Center which has developed into an ongoing work of art to be implemented in schools, universities and public facilities all over the United States.
Leith is known to a coterie of important collectors which includes Prime Minister Netanyahu, Chozu Yoshii, Robert Gore Rifkind, Congressman Wayne Gilchrest and Congresswoman Mary Bono. She is noted for her landscapes, fields of flowers, still life, marine life and portraits. Leith has broadened her scope of creativity to include a series of Mandala paintings for the New Millennium, and Transceiver Sculpture as a form of energy-enhancing art to be used in public and corporate buildings such as Eisenhower Medical Center, where one was installed. New subjects present themselves as a challenge so long as they contain or have the potential of energy and movement.
When not painting in her studio, Leith spends time with her family and travels
Dame Leith Eaton is known as the 20th Century Renaissance Woman. ‘My life’s work is created to uplift mankind’, says Leith who has a studio in Beverly Hills, California. She has had exposure to many cultures and abundant inspiration. Leith was given the title of extensively, while gaining new inspirations along the way. An active sportswoman, she excels at tennis, riding, skiing and swimming. She has experienced the thrill of skydiving, has taken flying lessons, and survived some whitewater rafting and scuba diving, the latter in the beautiful coral reefs off Papua New Guinea. She was honored with the title “Dame of Grace of Malta” by the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem for her humanitarian and artistic endeavors.
SELECTED CORPORATE SPONSORS
AT&T
Intel
CBS Sports
Bentley, USA
Lexus
Intergraph
Harry Winston
St. John Knits
Metacreations
Wacom
Alzheimer Foundation
Desert Sunshine Express
Palm Springs Film & Entertainment Museum
Palm Springs International Film Festival
International Arts Association
Current Gallery Representation
Izen Miller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA