Elmer Schooley

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"I'm a subject matter painter. My paintings are abstract only to a certain kind of person. I'm very concerned with the subject matter. I want—I don’t want ponderosa pine to look like piñon. You know, I want it to be ponderosa pine. I'm not satisfied to just say 'tree' or just say 'forest.' I want it to reek of nature."

— Elmer Schooley

Elmer Wayne "Skinny" Schooley, painter, printmaker, and teacher, was born in Lawrence, Kansas on February 20, 1916. After the World War II, Schooley joined the faculty of the New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas and taught there for thirty years. He was a professor of art and founded the lithography program at the university. As a printmaker he produced black and white and color lithographs, etchings and woodcuts. After he retired from teaching, he turned his full attention to painting.