Skip to main content

LeRoy E. Greene (1893-1974) Montana Artist

Fame is fickle, many Montana artists have risen to national status, but few remain in the limelight. Greene established a following in his day, and is still collected by sophisticated collectors who like paintings that reflect the Montana landscape.  Owners like to point to their paintings and explain the location and the significance of Greene’s work.


Greene was born in Dover, NJ, his father was an artist, who died when he was about eight years old. Like many children in that day with a deceased father, he quit school to go to work and got his first job as an errand boy for a jewelry firm in Newark.  Newark was a hotbed for the jewelry arts at that time.  In his twenties, he worked his way west arriving in Billings, MT in 1916, where he used his childhood job skills to land another job with a jewelry store.


World War I came along and Greene was drafted.  Hoping to be sent overseas, instead the military used his jewelry skills to repair optical instruments, ending up in Frankfort, KY.  After the war he returned to Newark, spending some time with his mother, but shortly felt the call to go back to Montana.  He returned to Billings and he set up his own jewelry store and starting spending his free time painting.  


In 1927 he went to LA to study at the Otis Art Institute.  After two years of art school he once again returned to Billings.  This time setting up his jewelry business in the Stapleton Building where he had a large studio.  It was there that he started teaching art classes a couple nights a week during the off seasons, keeping the summer free for his own painting.


By 1933 he held his first annual exhibit in the studio.  He continued to develop his own artistic skills and in the summer of 1937 he went to Provincetown to study with George Elmer Browne.  By the 1940s he was earning a living from his paintings, and in 1946 he designed and had built his mountain studio in the Beartooth Range at Rosebud Lake, the inspiration for numerous paintings.  


In the case of “October Jewel” painted in 1957, this was done near Columbus, MT, about 50 miles east of Billings.  Greene frequently spent his time outdoors painting directly from nature.  The golden trees are ablaze with color and the riverbed has dwindled down to a small stream.  The early morning frost has worn off and now the sky is a cloudy blue.

October Jewel -1957
Near Columbus, Montana
Acrylic on Canvas
#1746, 24" X 30"

From a Great Falls Tribune article drafted by Mr. Reichelt in 1963, he quoted Greene:  “To create a painting, should be like telling a story to a friend.  The grammar, the choice of words, the thought, the knowledge of the subject, plus the joy of the telling, makes the difference between a good or a crude story.  Just so in painting.  The technique, the colors and the knowledge of the subject are most important, but without feeling and inspiration, and the sheer delight in the subject, the resulting painting will be short of being a work of art.”  


On April 22, 1974, Greene went out to paint an old barn in the Pryor Mountains, he died at age 80 on his way home. Greene's wife Ella kept an inventory of every painting by Greene. He accomplished 2505 major works before his death. Today, Meadowlark Gallery (online and Joliet, MT) keeps track of the inventory and ownership.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MARCEL (Marcella Anderson) Torpedo Factory Artist

Marcella Anderson and/or Marcy Anderson (1946 - 2015) was better known as "MARCEL", a popular serigraph/silkscreen artist, at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in historic Old Town Alexandria, VA. She maintained a gallery and work space at the Torpedo Factory from 1976 to 2015. At the top of the stairs on the 3rd floor was this large light filled studio with a charming blonde woman surrounded by her silkscreens. In the early 80s, her work consisted mostly of water reptiles, fish, birds and environmental scenes. She kept with nature themes during most of her time at the studio. Her obituary stated: "Marcel was known for her bold, yet sensitive, use of color and design. Her images in all media reflected her love of nature. Her glowing color, both intense and delicate, was achieved through the use of transparent layers of color." Marcel was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and studied at the Cornish School of Allied Arts. Before arriving in the DC area, she had

Japanese Wooden Dolls: Kokeshi-Ningyo "こけし-人形"

This article is dedicated to my Japanese (nihongo) Sensei, Atsuko Kuwana, who helped me learn to speak Japanese. Collectors come in all varieties, some plan their collections, others start by chance.  I saw my first kokeshi(こけし) wooden doll in 2005 while participating in a grassroutes exchange program between the U.S. and Japan.  I was staying with a family near Nagoya and the couple’s young daughter had one.  Years later when I was named a Mike Mansfield Fellow from the U.S. government to the Japanese government, and was living in Japan, I would see them frequently at flea markets and souvenir shops next to the natural hot spring resorts in the area known as Tohoku.  Before leaving for Japan, I studied all things Japanese at the George Shultz Foreign Service Institute (FSI), including a professor that covered domestic and family life and some short statements on kokeshi.  After arriving in Japan, the National Personnel Authority ( jinjiin ) was responsible for my continued studies, b

Japanese Dolls - Ichimatsu Doll by Kyugetsu

On the top floor of the Matsuya Department Store in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo, was a large exhibit space that rotated shows about every two weeks. It was one of my favorite places to visit, as there were fine artists and craftsmen showing their creations with the assistance of the most attentive staff and sales associates. They always exemplified elegance and class. During a drop-by-visit, there was a Ichimatsu doll exhibit. Dolls are dolls, a play thing, until they become an artform. The exhibit was part educational seminar and part wonderment. These Japanese dolls were not produced on a factory floor with production quotas. Each doll was handmade with painstaking details by an artisan that rendered a doll with personality, charm and beauty. The keeper of all knowledge, Wikipedia, describes Ichimatsu dolls this way: the doll represents little girls or boys, correctly proportioned and usually with flesh-colored skin and glass eyes. The original Ichimatsu were named a