Leland Standley, 25-year island resident and distinguished Pacific Northwest landscape painter, passed away in Seattle on Thursday, December 29th, 2016. Leland leaves behind two sons, Vincent and Daron Standley, stepdaughter Celina Yarkin, and wife Batoul Standley.

Born in 1933 in Wichita, Kansas, to Clara and Leroy Standley, Leland grew up left handed in a Baptist wheat farming community. After graduating from high school, Leland served in the Navy in Kodiak, Alaska, during the Vietnam War. After the war, Leland received a degree in Philosophy and Sociology from Los Angeles State College before doing graduate studies in painting at Ohio State University. As a young student and artist, he counted a total of 27 occupations he held to make ends meet including, among the many, insurance adjuster, school principal and builder. In the 60s, he married his first wife Dorain, and they homesteaded in Oregon before moving to Bellingham where they had two sons. They lived as beatniks as he immersed himself in his painting career which he pursued faithfully until his dying days.

He married his second wife Emily Carlisle (a current Vashon resident), around 1971, and adopted Celina Yarkin shortly thereafter. He married his third wife, Batoul Standley in the eighties, and they settled on Raab’s Lagoon around 1992.

It is unfortunate that more people didn’t have the privilege of knowing Leland as he was a private person, and he spent his time painting in his studio, gardening and working around the yard and house. He showed his paintings with Francine Cedars, and Greg Kucera Galleries in Seattle. Art critic Regina Hackett called him “one of Seattle’s best unknown painters.”

He had a sharp mind, and sharper wit, and was a master story teller with a sense of timing and attention to detail. He described his paintings as being “about an affinity with the countryside one can feel when out for a walk. I paint in the spirit that celebrates the union of humankind with nature.”

The burial and memorial service will be held at the Vashon Cemetery on January 22, at 10A.M. There will be bagpiping, and people are welcome to say a few words in Leland’s memory.