Mermaid is a metal sculpture, in good condition, signed "Raymer 62" on bottom, measuring 8.5x7.3.5. Total dimensions are 10.75x7x3.5. Lester Raymer, born in Alva OK Sept 24, 1907, died in Lindsborg June 1, 1991. He is widely known as a painter, especially of religious images, circus and roosters, as a printmaker, sculptor and craftsman; he worked with a variety of art forms beginning in his early grade school years and continuing throughout his artistic career. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago where his painting professor was Boris Anisfeld from Russia, and his art history professor was Helen Gardner, author of "Art Through the Ages", long-time used as a textbook of American art. He earned a BFA from the Art Institute, actually finishing his senior year work at Northwestern in Oklahoma. Raymer moved to Lindsborg in the 1940s, taught at Bethany College, Lindsborg, from 1946-47 but primarily devoted his life to working as a studio artist at the Red Barn Studio in Lindsborg. In his career Raymer won major awards and international recognition with his religious art work and liturgical commissions. The Red Barn Studio is filled with Raymer’s art and handiwork, from paintings and prints to ceramics and metalwork, from woodcarving to stitchery, furniture and jewelry. Raymer considered painting and printmaking his most important work, which he studied at the Chicago Art Institute, but he worked in almost every medium. His work is influenced by his love for the world’s great painters, especially the Spanish masters, the Southwest and Mexico, religious symbolism, and folk art. There are a variety of influences in his subject matter as well. The circus came to Alva often during Raymer's childhood, he worked for a poultry business where he did drawings and paintings in his spare time, and illustrations from the Bible were a source of imagery beginning in his childhood.

good condition

2.5 lb