Summer '15 in Montana

It's fun to be back up in NW Montana for the warmest part of the year, surrounded by lakes and rivers, dense woods and plenty of things going on. So far we've had a surprise BD party for Grandma, a Father's day dinner, an exciting drive scoping out property that we can't afford to buy up a sketchy road where we almost got shot at, :) Wading in a turquoise - colored lake, and finding the strawberry patch I planted a couple of years ago in grandpa's swamp successfully taking over.

Then Saturday, we went to the Hockaday Museum's art show and sale for all of the oil painters who went on the annual plein-air paint out in Glacier (I was so bummed out that we just barely missed that part). The best part for me - besides meeting other artists- was the show up inside the museum. We really stuck out because we had two toddlers with us and my big fat pregnant belly trying to navigate the clusters of wine-and-cheese tasting guests, but this was our only chance, and I just HAD to see the Kathryn Stats originals in the show that opened a week ago. They were worth it. The main themes I noticed in her paintings, besides the fact that they were all gorgeous, were these: Strong value groupings, with light being really separated in value from shadow; Shadow areas laid in thin or with a palette knife first, with dry-brushed lights/highlights on top; The strokes for the highlights were almost all put down in straight lines, which gave the paintings continuity, and added that kind of confident flair that makes you mad because it looks like she finished the whole thing in a few minutes and just had a blast.

Today I finished painting #2 since we got here - an 8" x 10" of one of Kalispell, MT's first houses- the Conrad Mansion. I did this one from a photo at the table while my girls colored strawberry shortcake coloring books and the youngest tried to improve my painting with an all too accessible palette knife.

Painting #1 from last week was done on location. Shortly after I started, it became clear that the space under this train trestle was a popular hangout for local drunks, and frog-catching location for a cute little boy that showed up by himself to eat his lunch and tell me all about his family, and life, and all the animals he's caught so far this summer. He even offered to give me his phone number so he can play with my nephews since he doesn't know any other kids to play with, so I told him a few reasons why he shouldn't be giving out his phone number.  He climbed up on the fence behind me to watch me paint for a long time. I kept painting until all of the drunks were gone so he wouldn't be left with them, and then made him promise not to come back whenever there were men drinking under the bridge. "Sometimes they come here to sell each other bad stuff," I told him. "Yeah, like tobacco!" he added. "Yeah, bad stuff like tobacco... and it could be dangerous for you to be here."  That seemed to convince him, so he agreed to go home after catching the Garter snake he'd just caught a glimpse of.  You never know who you'll meet when you're out painting, but it's always an adventure.