 Teater's first formal art instruction began in the winter of 1921–22 when (using money he had accumulated from trapping mink and muskrat) he left Boise to study for two winters at the Portland Art Museum.His teachers at the Museum were Clara J. Stephens (1877–1952) and Henry F. Wentz (1876–1965).In the early 1930s, a number of eastern summer visitors in Jackson Hole felt that Teater would benefit from exposure to the New York art scene and urged him to go to New York for further training and study.