Leno Prestini

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Leno Prestini (Feb 4, 1906 - April 26, 1963) was an artist from Clayton, Washington in the 1920s - 1960s. Many of his paintings are on display in museums throughout the Pacific Northwest including the Keller Heritage Center Museum and Park in Colville, Washington and the Old Schoolhouse Museum in Loon Lake, WA. Prestini was also a sculptor. He sculpted the ram's heads that adorn the The Davenport Hotel (Spokane) in Spokane, Washington. In 1965, his estate donated a 60 foot totem pole to the Spokane Interstate Fair.

To many he seemed to be an energetic, happy man with eccentric tendencies. He designed and built his own underwater diving equipment and tried to aid local police in finding a dead body in a lake around the area. Though seen as energetic and happy, Leno Prestini committed suicide in 1963.

Some of his works, Page 1939, Page 1940 and Page 1941 depicted the horror that would become World War II, painted in the years before the war began, focusing on the dangers of Adolf Hitler.

The Heritage Network, a group of historical societies and museums in NE Washington has begun the The Leno Prestini Project. They plan to produce a video and book about the life of Leno Prestini. You can watch a short video presentation describing the project here.