For over 50 years, Leo Lambiel has been collecting mostly local art – some of it very expensive art – and displaying it in his home. Now it is all coming to an uncomfortably abrupt end.
He started out with a little 24′ x 24′ cabin and built on it over the years until it became the stunningly unique treasure that it is today, hanging on a precipice above the ocean and filled with thousands of masterpieces by thousands of artists.
Decorated on its exterior in various styles and mediums, we didn’t know what the house was all about the first few times we drove past it when we moved here. It wasn’t until we heard you could book a two-hour art tour with the owner that we thought, “Ohhhh, okay.”
It’s been four years since my first tour. I was dumbfounded, not just by the amount of art perfectly and precisely hung in that house, but also by the tediously complex projects that Leo himself carried out in order to make his own imaginative dreams come true inside and outside of those walls.
A few weeks ago, I saw a flyer that said he’d be selling off everything at the end of this month in order to eventually move away from Orcas Island. I knew that was not part of his long-term plan when I met him on that first tour. I called him out of the blue and asked if I could come and document this world he made, which will no longer exist in several months. I love when people live out their dreams, and this was an example of long, hard, intellectual, and physical work to do just that.
Eyes welling up, Leo explained the many reasons he is having to move on. Between death, family illness, and pitiful lawsuits, Leo has experienced heavy loss in almost every imaginable way – very personal, emotional situations whose details I will leave for him to divulge in more private settings. But I know this is never the fate he intended for his incredibly-built home and his extensive art collection. If only National Geographic or the Smithsonian could get over here to document it all before it’s gone – it is about to vanish silently into the past.
Leo no longer gives home tours, as his beautifully arranged home gallery has been reconfigured for an art sale on August 25th and 26th, and no longer conveys the level of impeccability it always did in the past, so I happened to spontaneously ask for and receive the last guided walk-through ever. I am both honored and saddened.
Feast your eyes on this man’s dreams that he fashioned into reality. You might imagine that even one of his ideas would have taken a lifetime to complete, yet he has room upon room full of ideas made real because he apparently never told himself that they couldn’t be done.
Art adorns the exterior walls…
The main house…
Heading out of the main house onto the deck overlooking the sea…
Heading toward the next part of the house, which holds the largest collection of Helen Loggie etchings in the world…
Not only did Leo continue to build onto his house, he also did all the interior walls himself. The woodwork is excruciatingly detailed and perfect.
Moving beyond the Loggie gallery and toward Leo’s rendition of an ancient, crumbling temple…
I believe he said it required over 60 tons of concrete to build.
Leo fashioned it to resemble a real temple as accurately as possible.
Heading down to The Grotto…
Not only did Leo build this cave himself, it is also adorned with tens of thousands of shells he personally attached to its walls.
Leo commissioned this gate, whose inscription is written in various languages.
There are hidden chambers in The Grotto…
This here is one of several projects on his property that Leo will never get to finish…
The path from one area of his house to another gradually winds down to the beach…
And back up we go, to visit another interior area…
These are some plans he had professionally painted for the room that he was planning…
He then commissioned a miniature 3-D model…
Then he had a device built that would mimic what you would see if you were looking up from under the ocean…
Leo commissioned an artist to paint this room. She worked on it 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 13 months…
The wine room Leo built with corks, PVC, and hundreds of wine labels…
Miniature model pieces Leo used while planning his temple…
This is another room that will never be completed. Leo never stopped making his ideas into reality. The dome would have been a miniature lit version of the night sky exactly as the stars would have aligned the night Leo was born. Below it a hot tub was in the works…
Leo commissioned a local artist to build this metal castle mailbox…
This is just the tip of a gigantic iceberg that is quickly melting, never to be seen again. Leo has unbelievable explanations for how he made, commissioned, or bought every single thing inside and outside of his home. He’s a serious, private, hard-working, big-dreaming man who is now having to let go of everything.
When asked what his next dream is, he replied that he wants a comfortable house with a comfortable room with warm lighting, a comfortable chair, a good glass of wine, and a great book.
But none of this is easy for him to release. Please come out and support him if you are interested in buying some of his art this weekend. More details about him and about his art sale can be found here.
Edee,
I am SO glad you were able to capture part of this story,
and SO sad about the end result.
When i visited, I remember him talking about his hope that some organization or foundation would agree to take over the WHOLE COLLECTION.
What a loss for society (although a gain for whoever is able to be there to scoop everything up) I really feel for him…
To Leo,
THANK YOU for letting me visit your home.
It is a memory I will never forget!
Thanks Jack!