Lester Hughes

"Night Hawk" West Texas Western Cowboy Rider Painting. Night Cattle Watchman

60s

The El Paso Artist Lester Hughes is a self-taught artist who paints imaginative landscapes of the Southwest, often with horse-back riding cowboys intent on their duties. Back in 1969, when Lester Hughes quit his job as a business supply salesman to become a full-time artist, he never dreamed that one day his paintings would hang in the White House. Seven years later, however, this artists' dream came true, when one of his works was presented to President-elect, Ronald Reagan during a 1976 campaign stop in Hughes' home town of El Paso, Texas. According to Time magazine, President Ronald Reagan purchased over a dozen paintings by Hughes and some of them hung in the White House during Reagan's tenure. Looking at his simple life-style, it is difficult to imagine that he numbers a bevy of Congressmen and Senators and numerous other celebrities such as actress, Betty White, golfer Lee Trevino and ex-Presidents George Bush and Gerald Ford among the collectors of his work.