Leigh St. Maur Stocker, a Southern California photographer and artist who died five years ago, never sought exposure for his work, which ranged from still lifes of Camel cigarette packs to evocative photographs of gladiolas to nudes. But his brother, San Geronimo valley resident Michael Stocker, wants to spread Leigh’s works, which involved painting on his photographs. “I have like 600 pieces…I have to get them out into the world and show them,” said Mr. Stocker, who is working with Olema artist Susan Sasso to hold an open house for Leigh’s work this weekend. Leigh, born in 1944, studied art in school in Long Beach, earning a Master’s of Fine Arts with a focus on painting—but an arrest would shift the medium for his future works. Leigh was arrested for protesting the Vietnam War and offered two choices: go to jail for five years or serve in the army for two years, Mr. Stocker said. Leigh chose the latter, spending over a year in Vietnam as a patrol leader. His time there “was traumatic. It took him 10 years to start talking about it,” Mr. Stocker said. But during Leigh’s time in Asia, he went on break to Japan, where he bought a Pentax camera and lenses and launched into the realm of photography. Leigh, who returned to Long Beach and worked at a store called Terry’s Camera, developed an artistic process that involved taking a picture with an Sx70 Polaroid camera—which Mr. Stocker said made images with a painterly quality. Then Leigh took a picture of that image with a 35 millimeter, and then he would paint on the second photograph. “At some early point he began painting the photographs, stripping out the density of the silver with Potassium Ferro-cyanide, which left an ethereal base over which he laid his fluid colors,” Mr. Stocker wrote on a website for the artist. This weekend’s open studio will have 16 or 17 still-life works on display. Mr. Stocker described one that features a pair of red, heart-shaped sunglasses. “They’re essentially the Lolita sunglasses. The way they’re posed, he was able to access the sensuality… It’s both playful and serious, sensual but dangerous.”