Gary Joseph Schildt

1938 - 2021

Gary Joseph Schildt

Lakeview, OR - It has been almost one month since Gary Joseph Schildt died at his home in Lakeview, Oregon in the early hours of March 16, 2021 at the age of 82 years and 10 months. Gary was born in Helena, Montana on June 5, 1938 and raised on the Blackfeet Reservation by his grandparents. He was given the Blackfeet name of "Lone Bull", when as a baby still in diapers, his grandfather, Andrew saw him crawling into the corral amongst a group of heifers. His early days were spent on his grandparents' ranch at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, roaming those mountains and the adjoining prairie on his faithful Shetland "Peggy" in the company of his dogs.

Gary showed at a very early age a proclivity for art, stating that his first drawing was of a crow found on an Old Crow bottle that he copied along the wording, leading his grandmother to exclaim that he was a genius since he could spell before he could even talk! His innate artistic talent led him his entire life, from a painter in both oil and watercolor to sculpting. After graduating from High School in Browning, Montana, he attended Haskell Indian School in Kansas. When asked what subject he wanted to learn, he stated, "painting" and found himself learning how to paint walls. Needless to say, Haskell was not the place for an aspiring artist. He next attended City College of San Francisco and graduated with a degree in art. His success in art in San Francisco resulted in his receiving a scholarship to San Francisco Academy of Fine Arts, but the Draft intervened and he found himself in the Army. Following Basic and Medic Training, he was placed in the Army Reserves and was able to return home to the Blackfeet Reservation bent on using his art training to capture a way of life of the Blackfeet people which was fast disappearing. During those years, he set up a studio in a hotel on Main Street in Browning and produced his "Reservation Series", showing the everyday life of people living in a beautiful, yet harsh environment. The best known example of work during this period was his painting of "Buttrey's Bench" which depicted local people sitting and visiting on a bench outside the town's one grocery store. In doing the series, Gary stated, "In art lies the preservation of the unique culture of the Indian world. One can write all the words in the world about the 'old ways', but the only way those 'ways' are truly preserved is by the artist's renditions".

After completing this series, Gary moved to Hungry Horse, Montana and set up a studio and bronze foundry, where he became a rising star in the art world. He was an original exhibitor at the very first Charles Russell Auction in Great Falls, Montana and continued to be chosen to exhibit there until only the last few years. He was a founding member of the Northwest Rendezvous of Art group and later painted with the Plein Aire Painters of America on Santa Catalina Island, traveling also with that group to Portugal and Mexico on group painting trips.

Not only was he a painter, proficient in both oil and watercolor, but Gary was also an accomplished sculptor. He owned three bronze foundries - two in Montana and one in Lakeview, Oregon. He was selected to do a bust of the late Montana Senator Lee Metcalf which is displayed in the Lee Metcalf Building in the State Capitol in Helena, Montana. It was so realistic that the Senator's widow, who only planned to bring the Senator's glasses and view the sculpture for a few minutes, stayed at Gary's studio for several hours marveling at the likeness. He was also selected to do the busts of celebrity guests, Denver Pyle, Hoyt Axton and Charley Pride at various C.M. Russell Auctions, doing each one in a Quick Draw, from "scratch" in just a one hour allotted time. The Charley Pride bust bought a record amount for the Russell Museum during the bidding, and Pride himself said it was the best depiction of him he had ever seen.

Gary's many other sculptures included both human figures and wildlife. He did a series he called "Huck Finn" showing the humorous and childlike side many of the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn stories. Perhaps his most ambitious sculpting project centered on his cousin (through marriage) the movie star, George Montgomery. (For those of you too young to remember, Google him.) Montgomery, a native of Montana, asked Gary to help him sculpt a heroic-size bronze of his former wife, singer and star, Dinah Shore, to be placed on the 18th. Hole at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, commemorating the fact that she began the first professional women's golf tournament in the United States - The Dinah Shore Classic. After this statue was completed, George started on another heroic size statue of himself in his movie role, "Riders of the Purple Sage". Sadly, George passed away before this sculpture was barely begun and Gary was asked to step in. All the work was done by Gary at his and his son Eric's Native Bronze Foundry in Lakeview, Oregon. Copies of the finished work can be found in Palm Springs, California and on the banks of the Missouri River at Ft. Benton, Montana, referred to affectionately by the natives as "The Cowboy". His ability as a sculptor also resulted in several porcelain decanter series, including "The Lewis and Clark Series", and "The Custer Series". He also sculpted other bronzes commemorating local Lake County scholarship donors.

The most ambitious painting project Gary undertook was forty-three oil paintings of the Blackfeet Medicine Lodge Ceremony, or Okan, known more commonly as the Blackfeet Sundance. He is the first and only Indian artist and member of a Tribe to do a depiction of one of his Tribe's sacred ceremonies. This exhibition is on permanent display at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. As a result of this impressive work and Gary's formidable talent and body of work, he received the 1999 Montana Governor's Award for the Arts.

The Montana Historical Society Museum in Helena, Montana commissioned Gary for two of its permanent exhibits - Montana Homeland and Neither Empty or Unknown. The former consists of three paintings and begins the Exhibit with a painting of early man crossing the land bridge into what would become Montana. The other two depict a Flint napper and the Roasting of Camus. The latter exhibition displays a 12 x 7 foot oil painting entitled "Trading for the Bride" which Gary painted at his home studio in Lakeview, with help from his sister-in-law, Miss Deb Watts.

Gary's art accomplishments over the years were many and varied, as were his awards and accolades. He had one-man shows at the C.M. Russell Museum in 1966, 1979 and 1980, at the Willoby-Taush Gallery in San Francisco, at the Montana Historical Society Museum, as well as exhibiting at the National Sculpture Society in New York in 1980. He was a feature artist in "Artwest Magazine" as well as "Southwest Art". In 2016 this accomplished artist was inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center.

Gary's greatest joy, as with any parent, were his children - Robin, Eric, Robert, Jody and Hunter. He used them as inspiration for many paintings and sculptures. Their spark and spontaneity is forever set down on canvas in in bronze for all to enjoy. As an artist, Gary always followed his own path that was never propelled by financial gain, but rather by the art itself and his quest to bring his renderings into being. He always followed the advice of his art professor at City College who cautioned him that those who dabble in technique have nothing to say. His was always a path of imbuing his unique work with a story. He was a true Native Son in every sense of the word to his native Montana and his adopted Lake County. His work brought both pleasure and illumination to every subject he painted or sculpted.

Gary Joseph Schildt is survived by Sandra K. Watts of Lakeview, Oregon, daughters Robin Schildt of Great Falls, Montana and Jody Juneau of Artesia, New Mexico, sons Eric of Anchorage, Alaska, Robert of Plush, Oregon, and Hunter of Portland, Oregon, nephews Bruce, Andy and Harry Schildt, all of Browning, Montana, niece Fern and sister-in-law Deborah Watts of Lakeview, Oregon, together with many other cousins. He was the oldest in the Schildt family and was predeceased by his mother, Marie Schildt, his father, Donald Billadeaux, his grandparents, Andrew and Cecile Schildt, sister/cousin Josephine, brothers/uncles Joe and Harry and his aunt Florence. His Blackfeet lineage goes back to the seventh generation through Bead Woman and Pine Tree Woman. His German roots go back to before the Civil War with his great, great, great grandfather being visited by President Lincoln as Colonel Schildt lay wounded in a Gettysburg field hospital. His great, great grandfather named the "Little Drummer Boy" too young to fight, carried the drum in the Civil War, later came West and is buried in the Schildt cemetery on the Blackfeet Reservation.

Cremation has taken place and services in Lakeview, Oregon and Browning, Montana will be announced at a later date. Contributions in Gary's name can be made to St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 614 South F. Street, Lakeview, Oregon 97630; Lakeview Arts Council, 40 North I. Street, Lakeview, Oregon 97630; Blackfeet Humane Society, c/o Grass Winds Veterinary Clinic, Browning, Montana 59417; C.M. Russell Museum, 400 13th. St. N., Great Falls, MT 59401 or donor's choice.