Ray Eyerly - a Sisters original

A man of humble beginnings, with no formal education, who worked at many trades during his lifetime, might have easily slipped from community memory after dying.

For one such man, Raymond Leslie Eyerly, his memory lives on here in Sisters and more widely through his paintings that provide a glimpse of the rugged country of Central and Eastern Oregon, its landscapes and people.

All of his work was the result of his innate artistic talent. The only formal training he had was one year of art school as a young teenager, earned by serving as the school's janitor.

At the time of his death on July 31, 1980, at the age of 85, Eyerly had created over 1,000 pieces of art, including pastels, pen-and-inks, watercolors and oil paintings. The actual number cannot be accurately estimated because he kept no records of his work and only started numbering some of them later in life.

Many of his pieces are currently in museums, private collections, and in the homes of individuals who purchased them off the walls of The Gallery Restaurant in downtown Sisters. During those years, his originals sold for $8,000 to $12,000. According to former owner of The Gallery, Jim Cheatham, they usually sold one or two originals a year. Cheatham also kept a box of Eyerly's prints at the restaurant and sold two or three a day.

His talents were recognized far beyond Sisters as he won awards, particularly for his use of color. According to Beverly Blodgett's biography of Eyerly, "A Picture or Two - The Story of Ray Eyerly" (1974) - he became the first artist honored by a resolution in the joint houses of the Oregon Legislature. On June 3, 1971, Oregon's master artist received official State recognition with a standing ovation at the Oregon State Legislature and was the first artist in the history of Oregon to be so honored. They recognized him for preserving with his artistic talents much of the tradition of the American West.

His fine-line pen-and-ink portraits of Warm Springs, Klamath, and Navajo Indians preserved the image of those peoples for posterity. Cheatham remembers visits to The Gallery by any number of Warm Springs residents who could point out their relatives and ancestors in Eyerly's work on the restaurant walls.

His work depicted, with photographic detail, the beauty of Oregon east of the Cascades, including the twisted juniper, the dilapidated weathered buildings of the desert, the wild horses, the sheepherders and prospectors.

One particular piece is believed to be his only self-portrait, according to Cheatham. It is titled "Please Pass the Biscuits" and depicts an old man (Eyerly) feeding biscuits to his sheep dog.

Eyerly and his wife, Lois, moved to Sisters from Salem in 1963. They lived in the old white house on the Lazy Z ranch, located on the south side of Highway 20 on the way out of Sisters to the east. It was only after coming to Sisters that Eyerly began to paint full-time in that house.

Tragically, Lois succumbed to illness in 1970, leaving Eyerly a widower for 10 years. By the time Cheatham bought The Gallery Restaurant in 1979, Eyerly was a daily fixture on his stool at the end of the counter. He took all three meals there every day. If he happened to find someone sitting on his stool, according to Cheatham, "Ray would less than politely tell you to move."

In Sisters, most people assumed Eyerly owned the restaurant due to his ever-present self on the stool and his art on the walls. One of his favorites on the menu was the custard pie, so about once a month he'd remind the cook, "It's about time for custard pie."

Many Saturday evenings he and his son, Ray Jr., would bring their instruments down to The Gallery bar and Eyerly would entertain patrons with his banjo-playing.

Although he could be mistaken for being cantankerous as he aged, in his biography he was described as a "conversant, friendly man - more reserved than aggressive - whose reverence and celebration of life is expressed with masterful draftsmanship and meticulous attention to detail."

Born in Canton, Illinois, on August 22, 1894, he was the second of four children, although only one census record indicates there was a fifth child, a girl, when the family left Illinois. There is no record of her after that.

His family moved to the Judith Basin of Montana when he was 15 to take advantage of the Homestead Act. It was there he met Western artist Charles Russell, who showed him how to properly proportion the drawing of a horse, a lesson he never forgot.

Eyerly registered for the draft on June 15, 1917, in Hobson, Montana, at age 23 as a single man. During World War I, he served in the 315th Field Signal Battalion of the 90th Division. Following the armistice, the Army sent him on the athletic circuit, where he became the light heavyweight boxing champion.

In 1919 he joined his parents and siblings in Salem, Oregon where he worked as a mechanic for the State Highway Department. There is a little-known interlude in the decade of the 1920s discovered in the records of Ancestry.com. Ray and his younger brother Russel were arrested in Kern County, California, both charged with grand larceny. On May 6, 1920, they were both incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison for three years, being released on March 20, 1923. In their booking photos their strong family resemblance is evident.

The 1930 census shows Eyerly living back in Salem, age 35, working as a salesman for a washing machine company. He had married Lois Seits of Waldport in 1926 when he was 32 and she was 16. They had two young children - son Raymond and daughter Germaine. A third child, a daughter, Paddy Sue, came later.

When the U.S. entered World War II, at the age of 47 Eyerly again registered for the draft. He was then working for his older brother Lee at his Eyerly Aircraft Company in Salem. While living in Salem, Eyerly co-founded the Realistic Arts Guild, and founded an organization for professional exhibitors and artists.

After Ray and Lois moved to Sisters, he called this place home until his death. A peer of Eyerly's, Harold Barclay for whom Barclay Park is named, also frequented The Gallery on a daily basis. Cheatham described Barclay as a real patron of the arts and he purchased a number of Eyerly's originals. In a newspaper article, Barclay described Ray as "a real hard worker, painted real steady, up early every morning."

On the day of Eyerly's funeral in Bend, The Gallery closed for the day in memory of Ray. Many friends and acquaintances gathered to bid farewell to Oregon's Master Artist.

In Eyerly's August 1, 1980 obituary in the Bend Bulletin, long-time friend Barclay was quoted as saying, "He was a part of Sisters. Everybody knew Ray, everybody knew him and everybody liked him."

He is remembered as an artist, banjo player, jack of many trades, and a friend to his Sisters neighbors. He and Lois are buried in the Camp Polk Cemetery.

Eyerly's work can be viewed and purchased now through the end of October as part of the Friends of the Sisters Library exhibit, "First Americans."