LES PETERS 1917 - 2010

As soon as I got back to Montana in 1999, I began to ask people where Les Peters was.  I always thought of Les as a prince of painters, the kind of generous, gentle man that people presumed Charlie Russell was.  Today I opened the newspaper to his obituary, quietly dead at 93.  I remember  him warmly as a man in his forties who wore his hat to paint, maybe because -- like Charlie -- it helped to keep his hair from falling in a boyish lank across his eyes.  I remember how he pushed his hat back by using the tip of his thumb under the brim to keep from touching it with his stained fingers.  His paintings were like himself: muted, accurate, full of love of the land and the animals.

When I first met Bob Scriver in 1961, he was just beginning to create his room of miniature wildlife dioramas, window portraits of inch-to-a-foot animals in their natural settings.  But he wasn’t happy with his ability to paint backgrounds.  One day he had an inspiration and called Les Peters to see if he would swap some sculpture for painting a couple of backgrounds.  He would and Bob figured he would watch closely to pick up pointers about how to do the rest.  Les was generous and patient, so Bob got the best of the swap.  (The dioramas are in storage at the Montana Historical Society.)

In 1969 Dale Burk, prize-winning journalist, did a roundup of the Montana artists and put them in a book called “New Interpretations” which is still available from the Stoneydale Press in Stevensville.  (777-2729)  Those were the days when artists were local and accessible.  Dale’s opening vignette in his essay about Les Peters captures the man well.  Les is about to put a brush full of color on his work in progress, but hesitates and finally puts the brush down.  “A lot of times I feel that I need more color in a painting and I try to put it in but I can’t.  It just doesn’t look right to me.” 

Charlie Beil, Charlie Russell’s student and possibly Nancy Russell’s favorite, gave lessons to Les up in Banff, but Burk suggests that Les may have been more impressed by Carl Rungius whose studio was next door.  Les didn’t pick up Rungius’ brilliant color, but he did learn the dynamic X as the basis for composition.  Both painters were far more interested in big game than frontier violence, which was Beil’s taste.   For Les the point of the painting was a kind of meditation, a merging with the animals and the land.  He didn’t need the money and didn’t paint for sales and prizes. 

In fact, in those days we were all a lot more idealistic.   A few of Dale’s subjects in this book are still around:  Fred Fellows (though he returned to Oklahoma), Bob Morgan, Gary Schildt, Stan Lynde, Rex Rieke.  Maybe it’s because there are so many new people in Montana and so many of the museum curators have also been from “outside,” but we don’t hear much about about the pioneer artists of the Sixties and earlier.  Good thing Dale thought to record them.  I still see these survivors around now and then, but I would have liked to have spent much more time with Les Peters, shy and graceful as a whitetail buck.  In the old days his death would have been front page news in Great Falls, but it wouldn’t have mattered to him.  He didn’t want fame and he already had fortune.

This photo of Les in  his studio is by Dale Burk and appears in “New Interpretations.”

_________


From the Great Falls Tribune, December 7, 2010

Boise, ID:  Leslie Hamilton “Les” Peters, 93, an Army veteran and long-time Great Falls artist, died of natural causes Thursday at his daughter’s home in Boise, Idaho.

A celebration of his life will be held at a later date in Great Falls.  Cremation has taken place under the direction of Cremation Society of Idaho in Boise.

The family of Leslie Hamilton Peters announces his passing at home with his daughter LInsey and her husband Rich Linford, in Boise, ID, on the evening of Dec. 2, 2010.

Les lived a long and wonderful life, leaving an amazing legacy through his artwork and his work in helping to establish the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, MT.

Les was born July 18, 1917, in Great Falls.  As a child he loved the time he spent with his family at their cabin in the Little Belt Mountains east of Great Falls.  He attended the University of Montana for a year and studied for one year at the University of Oregon before serving in the Army with the 11th Cavalry on the Mexican border.  In 1942 the Cavalry was disbanded and Les was transferred to an infantry division, later serving in France and Germany with the 13th Armored Division in World War II.

During his time in the Army, he met the love of his life, Barbara Lyons, of New York.  Les and Barby were married in August of 1945.  They moved to New York where Les studied for a year at the Art Students League and the Central Park School of Art.  He and Barby returned to Great Falls where they raised five daughters.  Les immersed himself in the life he loved, seeing and painting wildlife and the Western lifestyle.

Les continued to paint and sculpt through his life, giving generously of his time and talents, becoming a mentor and friend to many.  On most days, Les could be found painting at his brick study in Great Falls.  Even though he may have been in the process of finishing up a painting to get it sent off to a gallery or art patron, he always pushed back his easel to welcome visits from his friends and those interested in seeing his artwork and extensive collection of Native American artifacts.  Les’s beautiful artwork can be found throughout Montana and in private collections throughout the United States.  Some of Les’s greater accomplishments were a 90-foot mural for the Florence Hotel in Missoula, which now hangs at the Missoula airport, dioramas in the State Historical Society in Helena and a small painting that was presented to President Eisenhower.

He is survived by his five daughters:  Suzy Peters (Bob Ruch) of Bainbridge Island, WA; Deb Cole (Bob) of Missoula, MT; Cindy Hilderbrand (Martell) of Billings, MT; and Lindsey Linford (Rich) and Margot Nye (Tracy) of Boise, ID; grandchildren, Troy, Libby and Ford Clary; Travis and Michael Cole; Ryan and Abby Linford; and Landon, Emily, Logan, and Connor Nye;  great-grandchildren, Parker and Whitney Clary; his sister Mildred Duncan; and several nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by Barby; his parents, Julius and Julia Peters; his brother Julius Jr. (June) and sister, Elizabeth “Betty” Holbrook.