After study at the Slade, London and being a student of Ossip Zadkine in Paris, Leonard worked with Barbara HEPWORTH for five years: 'In the early fifties I gave up my post in charge of sculpture at college and came to work for Barbara Hepworth.  The Whitechapel exhibition of her work impressed me tremendously for its purity and idealism.  I worked alongside Denis MITCHELL, John WALL, Dicon NANCE and John MILNE.  Now I have returned to St Ives to continue my work.' 

He finds great inspiration in the purity of geometry, 'because it approaches a metaphysical attitude and reaches a peak in human perception.'