Leon Nicholas Kalas

Leon Nicholas Kalas, a former resident of Havre de Grace,is a visual artist from Athens, Greece. He came to the United States in 1960 and settled in New York City, the artist capital of the world. He attended Pace University in New York City, and graduated from the American Institute f Banking, New York.

During the many years he spent in the corporate world as a trade finance specialist, he also pursued his painting and photography. He studied portraiture and human anatomy at the New York Academy of Art,the Art Student League of New York, and FIT, Fashion Institute and Technology. He has traveled extensively throughout the world: Europe, the Middle East, Africa, both north and South Americas and the Caribbean Islands. He organized and took part in an expedition to Alaska by van that included a drive of 12,000 miles.

Attracted to Havre de Grace while in search of a retirement home, he found the town fascinating. Mr. Kalas has a son, Leon D. Kalas Jr.,who is a well-known couture and costume designer in New York City. Mr. Kalas now resides at his resident/ Art Studio in Brooklyn, New York. His oil paintings have been exhibited extensively in New York and Maryland galleries, and one of his painting has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in June of 2005. Some of the important portraits he has painted are of those of Mohammed VI King of Morocco, HRH King of Greece, Tony Curtis, Sydney Poitier, US Senator Roland Boris, Harry Belafonte, Ultra Violet(Andy Warhol's Superstar, and Jay Lenno.