Educated at
Horner Military Academy in
Oxford and at
Davidson College, he went on to attend classes at the
Art Students League in
New York. Upon winning a
scholarship for study in Europe, he travelled there, learning an academic style of
portrait painting. He returned to the United States, working as a professional
portraitist in
New York City and
North Carolina. Long went on to serve in
World War I, and abandoned his artistic career afterwards, being ordained as a
Presbyterian minister in 1922, becoming an
evangelist in the southern U.S. In his seventies, Reverend Long began painting again, in a far more
surrealistic fashion that widely differed from the style of his previous portraiture. Grandson
Ben Long (born 1945) is also an alumnus of the
Art Students League in
New York and is known for his drawings and fresco work. == Archival collections ==