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As frequently happens, Bowden's hobby grew from necessity. At the time he created his first picture, twenty-five years ago, he was a glove salesman in Providence, Rhode Island. His boss, looking for something new to promote the sale of gloves, asked him to fashion a window display.

As a young man, Bowden had studied art at Cooper Union and at the Art Students' League in New York City and had done some creative work for his own pleasure. In a business way he had been interested in designs and had designed snap fasteners and other glove accessories. In his spare time he had often toyed with the idea of finding some use for scraps of leather. Their texture and range of colors appealed to his artistic sense and he considered the possibility of making something from them.

So in response to his boss's request he set to work with a bundle of scrap leather which he procured from a glove manufacturer. The result—a life-sized poster backdrop of a woman—surprised everyone, even the artist himself. As a promotion stunt it was the talk of the industry, and requests for similar displays came from all over the country.

MAKING THESE posters in his spare time was fun for Bowden, even before he learned that they had any commercial value. That knowledge gave added impetus to his hobby, especially after he reached retirement age. Now he spends most of his time working at his hobby and giving talks about it before local clubs.

People are always interested in his work and admire it. Therefore, they pass the word along to their friends. That is how his profitable hobby has developed. One phase of his work that has attracted the attention of artists and television men alike is the dimensional character of his pictures. There is a depth and life-like quality in them not to be found in oils or even photographs. One television expert insisted that Bowden had attained a fourth dimension. When one of Bowden's pictures was placed alongside the colored photograph from which it was copied, it seemed to possess twice the life of the photograph. Television men attribute this dimensional quality to the fact that the bits of leather are placed one upon the other in a sort of applique fashion. But Bowden points out that there isn't thickness enough to create this effect. He insists that it simply comes from an intensive study of perspective. However that may be, it exists.

BOWDEN'S FIRST sales were to people in the Industry. One he especially recalls was to a group of executives who were planning a party for a glove buyer upon her completion of twenty-five years of service. At the party they presented her with a large framed copy of her favorite landscape done in leather.

Today Bowden gets a minimum of $40 for his smallest pictures, twelve by fourteen inches. Others range in size up to his largest, three by four feet, and prices run up to several hundred dollars.

Prices are not static. They increase with the demand, for the supply is limited. Every piece is an individual creation which requires time and concentration so intense that Bowden finds it impossible to work at a picture for more than an hour at a time. Thus it takes him at least a week of periodic effort to complete even his smallest and simplest pictures.

A completed picture represents five separate and distinct steps. First, the artist sketches the picture on a piece of drawing paper the exact size that he intends the finished picture to be. Then, using carbon paper, he traces the sketch onto a piece of pressboard. Pressboard forms the base of his pictures. This second step is necessary because he has found that if he sketches directly on the pressboard, as he works his arm reaches across one part of the picture to reach another section and in so doing smears the lines of the drawing and eventually erases them. This does not occur when carbon paper is used. The ink is indelible.

When the first two steps are completed, Bowden daubs the sketch with a light coating of glue and covers the press board with large pieces of background leather cut to fit the requirements for water, sky, land, road, etc. All these pieces of leather are in the correct tints. Incidentally, Bowden has no difficulty with sky. He uses white kidskin which he dyes himself to the shade of blue he wants. After dyeing the leather, he washes it. Because of certain residues left from tanning, the leather fades irregularly in the washing. Cloud effects can be found ready-made for most of his sky work.

The fourth step is the most interesting and the most difficult—the detail work. For this Bowden has tried all sorts of gadgets and has narrowed them down to a few. His "palette" is a box about nine by twelve inches divided into a dozen small compartments. These hold the tiny snips of leather—and these snips are tiny. A flower is composed of bits no larger than the head of an ordinary pin. A half-inch square of fine detail will require as many as twenty-four bits of leather, each glued separately. To place these snips on his "canvas," he uses tweezers, a toothpick, or an orange stick. The pieces are too tiny for his fingers to manipulate. These tiny bits are literally ground up pieces of leather. Larger pieces are cut and shaped with a razor or a scalpel. One difficult but interesting piece, and one which Bowden enjoys making, is a thatched roof cottage. For this he cuts strips of leather and then slits the edges of the strips into fine bits which he carefully lays row upon row as can be seen in an accompanying photograph.

Although Bowden's pictures are often mistaken by the uninitiated for oil paintings, no paint ever touches them. Shading is achieved by using different batches of leather. As many as five or six shades of green are used in creating a lawn. The only thing remotely resembling paint which is used is a fixative such as is used on charcoal drawings. That is sprayed over the completed picture and constitutes the final step in this unique art.

WHERE DO Bowden's customers and inspirations come from? Calendars, posters, photographs, animal pictures, old masters—all furnish him with ideas and copies. His customers come from other customers. Friends tell friends and the word spreads. His pictures have been hung in museums and at the present time have been sold to persons living in every state in the Union as well as in some foreign countries. His lectures and appearances on television also acquaint prospective buyers with his leather pictures.

A man in New Zealand, hearing of Bowden's work, sent him a picture of a house and another picture of some native trees and asked him to combine them into one decorative picture. A woman from a neighboring town sent him a photograph of her home. The photograph showed parts of other houses and a neighbor's garage. She asked him to eliminate all these and give her simply a picture of her home.

Bowden's pictures, or mosaics in leather as they are frequently called, serve other than decorative purposes. One customer sent him a snapshot of a newly completed home, as yet unlandscaped, and asked for a pretty picture. Bowden not only depicted the house but landscaped the grounds as well. The landscaping was so effective that upon receiving the picture the customer wrote thanking him and saying that he liked the landscaping so well that he was having it copied exactly. In another instance, friends of a homesick New Englander who had moved to California had a picture of his old home made and sent to him.

For reasons of convenience and economy Bowden's studio and gallery are in his home. Since his is a one-man project and few tools are needed, no large space is required for his studio, which is a tiny room on the second floor with a western exposure. In it are a table, which holds his tools, a palette and the pieces of leather with which he is working, an easel, a chair, a drawing board, and two small chests of drawers. The drawers are crammed with pieces of kidskin and suede. Each drawer holds a different color. Different dye lots provide different shades of the same color. Also the color at the edges of the skin is deeper than in the center.

The living and dining rooms of the Bowden home serve as "art gallery." On the walls are hung leather mosaics of all sizes and of all types of subjects, each appropriately framed. Landscapes, water scenes—sea, lake, river—thatched cottages, and English setters greet the visitor at every turn.