Red Barn Studio

The Red Barn Studio was the working studio of professional artist and craftsman Lester Raymer (1907-1991). The Red Barn Studio is filled with Raymer’s art and handiwork, from paintings and prints to ceramics and metalwork, from woodcarving to stitchery, furniture and jewelry. His work is influenced by his love for the world’s great painters, especially the Spanish masters, the Southwest and Mexico, religious symbolism and folkart.
Raymer considered painting and printmaking his most important work, which he studied at the Chicago Art Institute, but he worked in almost every medium. Each year he created a special Christmas gift for his wife, Ramona. These gifts included painted boxes, candlesticks, and other decorative items. In 1960 Lester began the tradition of making toys every Christmas for Ramona. He made 53 toys over a period of 30 years. Examples of these gifts and toys are on display at the Red Barn Studio. Much of Lester Raymer’s art and craftwork, including the Red Barn Studio, was made from recycled materials. Raymer took ordinary things, generally discarded mundane objects, and transformed them into beautiful works of art and crafts, gifts, toys and decorative elements for the studio.
The Red Barn Studio was restored and opened as a museum to the public in September of 1997.