Elmer Sprunger
1919- Present (painter)
Elmer was born in Kalispell in 1919. His interest in art began at an early age; as youngsters, Elmer and his younger brother Pete would sit around the kitchen table with their father drawing figures from the comic strips. Elmer took his first art lessons from famed artist Elizabeth Lochrie his sophomore year in high school. He remembers one of his first cartoons was done in a bar downtown. A large mirror was coated with epsom salt and beer to frost the glass, and Elmer drew a man running for the outhouse, Montgomery Ward catalog firmly in hand. Elmer graduated from high school in 1938 (having drawn the entire high school yearbook) and in 1939 met his wife-to-be, Marie. They married the next year and had three children. Prior to World War II Elmer earned his living cutting fence posts, working in a shipyard and as a logger. It was in his second year of service during World War II that he gained his first experience in commercial art, doing "special duty" work drawing posters for military shows. Back in Montana in 1950, Elmer followed in his father's footsteps as caretaker of Cedar Bay Lodge on the north end of Swan Lake. 1956 found him at the Anaconda Aluminum Company plant in Columbia Falls. Elmer's job included sign painting and cartooning: he drew hundreds of cartoons promoting safe working conditions at the plant, and offered his perspective on human nature, often at the expense of his co-workers. In 1962 Elmer co-authored a booklet with his friend Dale Burk. "Buck Fever" was a timeless collection of cartoons and comments on the sport of hunting and represented Elmer's first effort to publish his work. Elmer left the Aluminum plant in 1971 to focus on his art and spend more time in the field, researching his subjects and gathering inspiration. His paintings often depict wildlife in recognizable locations, such as the Garden Wall in Glacier National Park.