{"id":12427,"date":"2006-12-18T10:39:38","date_gmt":"2006-12-18T16:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=12427"},"modified":"2021-03-06T13:00:25","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T19:00:25","slug":"tales-of-leconte-stewart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/tales-of-leconte-stewart\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales of LeConte Stewart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>LeConte Stewart is one of my favorite early Utah artists and regrettably I never met him, even though he only passed away in 1990. I do have a couple of close friends who knew him quite well and between them, regular meetings with the Art Nurdz and conversations with family members I have formed a charming portrait of an artist swept up in his craft.<\/p>\n

The Inspection Sticker<\/strong>
\nMy favorite LeConte Stewart story was given at a retrospective at Clayton Williams\u2019 Gallery. One of LeConte\u2019s sons, Birge, was giving a talk about his father and related the story of the inspection sticker. One day, Birge noticed his father painting a small, but familiar painting. Upon closer examination, he realized that it was a copy of a Utah safety inspection sticker that years ago was required on everyone\u2019s cars. LeConte\u2019s explanation was that he wanted to save the money for the permit, didn\u2019t think that his old car would pass inspection, and besides, he could do a better job than the state at replicating a decal anyway. He had done it several times before and propped it up against his windshield with an old glove so that he could change it from car to car. Birge pointed out that what he was doing was illegal, and after some discussion, I believe LeConte\u2019s son prevailed and the car had to have some repairs done in order to pass inspection.<\/p>\n

Dick Stewart, a former BYU and Santa Clara professor of art, recalled that his father once filled his car at a Kaysville gas station that was adjacent to a convenience store. As he drove away, LeConte evidently hit the wrong pedal and crashed his car through the front window of the store. No one was injured but the story circulated around town that Mr. Stewart had driven through the store to pick up a Slurpee. Dick said that his father got away with quite a few things, but the townspeople seemed to understand his nature and didn\u2019t worry about him. \u201cMy father was an eccentric,\u201d Dick recounted, \u201cbut he was absolutely dedicated to his art. He put it first\u2014sometimes before his family.\u201d Sometimes there would be extended family parties and LeConte would promise to be there but would often return from a painting excursion, hours late or after the party was over. \u201cMy mom would be disappointed,\u201d Dick said.<\/p>\n

Dick was an accomplished artist in his own right and said that his father was his pal. \u201cWe talked about art all the time. He loved nature and would observe various areas up the canyon, the leaves on the trees, and the different colors and would take notes about them, reviewing those notes a year later to see how nature had changed the surroundings. I believe it helped him to be the great landscape painter that he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

LeConte\u2019s dedication to his craft is reinforced by a story related by a friend of mine, Tom Frost, of Kaysville extraction and whose parents assembled a rather extensive collection of Stewart works. Some years back he told me about a time when he was at his folks\u2019 home when LeConte walked into their living room, took down a painting from the wall and left without explanation. He returned it some months later after he had made some corrections to it that had been bothering him for years.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the only time he retrieved a painting. Alice Telford, my good friend and LeConte\u2019s niece, related a story about someone at BYU many years ago who persistently asked LeConte to donate a painting, presumably to be hung in the museum. LeConte finally did so, only to learn from someone else that the painting was listed for sale. LeConte felt somewhat betrayed and retrieved the painting.<\/p>\n

Maynard Dixon Connection<\/strong>
\nAlice has told me a number of stories about \u201cUncle Conte,\u201d some of which I had heard from the Art Nurdz (Seifrit, Poulton, Ericson, Swensen, Williams, et al.) and other reliable sources, and some that are brand new to me. Alice said that as a child she remembered several visits that Maynard Dixon made to the Stewart home. She played with the two Dixon sons who were much younger than she while her Uncle Conte and Maynard \u201cwent off painting.\u201d On one occasion, Dixon parked his trailer in their cow pasture and that is where he and his two boys slept. During another visit, Dixon slept upstairs in the house where the three Stewart boys slept. The boys had to sleep outside during that visit. While upstairs, Dixon lit up a cigarette one night and set the bed on fire. \u201cAunt Zip was ready to kill him!\u201d Alice related.<\/p>\n