Historical Art: Not Just Another Pretty Picture
The intensity and quality of research for Lee Teter`s paintings and drawings of American history is unparalleled in the field of fine art. Lee knows the world of the mountain men, and the generation from which they emerged. The pursuit of accurate information led him to study university papers, museum studies, journals, books and ancient business records. He has read accounts, written by men who roamed the early West, over and over. He has haunted symposiums, museums throughout the U.S. and Canada, and obscure historic sites. Thousands upon thousands of pages of notes, photos of artifacts, and even more notes, are organized in his mind and on his shelves. The art of Lee Teter will continue to fascinate historians as they explore the past, only to discover their findings already preserved in paint and pencil.
Lee’s search for the past took him beyond dusty records and museum artifacts. He has ventured into the physical world of his subject. He has experienced the bite of sub zero temperatures through buckskin moccasins, heard freezing ice hiss and scrape along the Wind River, and he has seen the magnificence of buffalo passing at a dead run within his touching distance. He has waded beaver streams, packed and ridden horses and mules, huddled on the plains in a buffalo robe during howling blizzards, and lived with wildlife high in the Rocky Mountains. Lee does not have to imagine all aspects of the mountain man’s world; he only has to remember some of his own camps.
Rather than following prescribed paths leading to recognition, Lee Teter has spent most of his life searching for accurate information so he could build meaningful art. In spite of appearing to sabotage his art career with a preference for solitude and study, the art world becomes increasingly familiar with Lee’s work. Most often Lee’s art is desired for the sake of the art alone; collectors are fascinated by his representations of emotion and life that are rarely conveyed with such success by a modern artist.
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© Summer Field Fine Art 2008
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