Western Art Week: Friends

One thing I love about doing art shows is the opportunity to see friends and to make friends. It's great speaking with people I don't know and getting to hear stories from them if we have the time to chat. But to see a familiar face in the crowd is like wrapping yourself up in a warm blanket!

There was one instance when I had been sitting for several minutes, drawing or writing something, and I looked up to make sure I wasn't ignoring anyone and I saw my friend and fellow MTWS member extraordinaire Margo Voermans walking toward me. I leaped off my chair and had a wonderful time catching up with her. She is going to be teaching a watercolor workshop in Missoula April 17 & 18 on abstract techniques. It sounds like it will be a fun spring workshop.

I also saw other people I've met before in Whitefish/Kalispell and also saw another MTWS board member. My friend Alger was in town for work to attend a conference. He owns a company on the east side of Glacier called Blackfeet Outfitters and gives guided fishing and hunting trips and jeep tours. He was such a nice friend and bought Amanda and I dinner from Chili's. Alger, you rock!

Amanda and Alger

However, the crown jewel of this post (and reason why I wrote it) is Amanda. She spent part of her vacation hanging out with me at Western Art Week. She helped me set up and take down the booth, watched my booth while I went to the bathroom or ate lunch/dinner, and shopped with me on the few chances I had. Gosh! She even made me lunch every day. She is a tremendous friend and I couldn't have done Western Art Week without her. Several summers ago she lived in Browning, MT while working at East Glacier. We took alternative way to Browning on the way home through a small town called Heart Butte. Driving from Heart Butte to Browning provided some incredible views...rolling hills with the sharp peaks of Glacier majestically rising behind. I sure enjoyed that little detour.

Glacier Trees

Here is some progress on another piece I've been working on. This one is very tedious. It is from a photo I took in Glacier a couple of months after I moved to Whitefish almost 3 years ago. Shoot dang! Time goes by quickly. I've masked some parts of the trees to preserve the white from the light that will be hitting them, but everything else is painted one slow detail at a time. It may look simple enough but it is very time consuming. I think I've already put 10 hours into it...a little here, a little there. I haven't been keeping track as I ought because I've also been working on other pieces and will consistently take a break and work on another mini piece.

I'm on narrow horizontal kick right now! The last floral piece I finished was this format. I also have another horse image ready to go at this format...but I don't want to start that until I finish this and more minis and then apply for some shows. I have so many ideas and want to paint them all but I can't do everything at once! Plus, postponing a piece often gives me more time to think about it, tweak the composition, ponder about the painting process I'll use, and (cross fingers) lead to a more polished piece in the end.

Well, I just wanted to share! Happy Wednesday!

1st of 2014

It's a super snowy day. I wanted to get out and snowshoe in Glacier but, alas, too many chores remain to be finished. I'm taking down my Christmas tree, need to clean up my apartment, and take my ever growing donation pile to Goodwill.

I finished a painting the other day. It is the first piece of 2014! I don't do many landscapes....I don't really feel they are my strong suit. So, my artistic goal for 2014 is become more comfortable at painting landscapes!

I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your weekend!

Iceberg, 10x18

Inspiration

Before Boundaries, 22x30

Wel, finishing that piece of the mountain goat really inspired me and I started looking through all of the pictures I've taken in Glacier with the idea to paint images using those photos as reference for the background. I have this sketch of a horse I've been doing over and over and was planning on doing a painting of some sort with it and then I happened to look at my bookshelf and there was a copy of one of Bev Doolittle's books and that got me thinking...I have a photo from Glacier that looks very Bev-Doolittle-backgroundy and I wanna paint this horse...I could totally do a Bev Doolittle inspired piece! So, I worked on it all weekend long and finally finished it this evening.

I'm not going to lie, I'm a little dissapointed and this is why. I have at 5 full sheets of 300lb watercolor paper left and have been meaning to paint on it again. The first couple of times were dissapointing and I've avoided the paper for 6 years. Yup, I've been hauling that paper around with me trying to build up the gumpton to try giving it another go. It just doesn't hold the color intensity or allow the paint to move like the paper I prefer (which is Arches 140lb CP or Fabriano Artistico 140lb SP, CP, RP) which is why I haven't used it. I was given the paper as a gift and was super excited at the time, as I had heard wonderful things about 300lb WC paper. I'm really not impressed.

But as with any try/fail, it is an opportunity to grow, learn, and take what you can from the experience. Besides, If I keep experimenting with it, I may learn to appreciate the unique quirks and make it work for me.

The Edge

Well, I finished it! About two weeks ago (perhaps longer maybe) I did a small 6x6 piece of a mountain goat standing on the edge of a drop off. I finished the full size painting Friday night. The full size painting is a sheet of watercolor paper, 22x30. Looking at them side by side, I see things I like about both pieces. While I love the horizontal format of the full size piece, the square size of the study seems more intimate. Both give a feeling of being on the edge of a cliff with a large mountain behind in their own unique way.

I figured I should share the inspiration for this piece. I went on a hike in Glacier and the end of last summer called Siyeh Pass. It's an 8 1/2 mile hike that loops around from one part of Going to the Sun hwy to another part. You end up gaining 2135 ft in elevation and are at 7911 at the highest point on the hike. There was a lot of smoke in the air from forest fires within several hours of the location (I think there were 4 that smoke was being blown from) but it created a really neat look. Hope you enjoy the picture that inspired this piece as well as some others I took from the hike.

My friends, at the highest point and the picture that inspired the painting.

I'm at the top. Yup, this is me!

Mmmmmmmm, Huckleberries. One of the best things about hiking in the mountains. Such a delicious treat on a hot hike

so that point, straight above my friends head (to the left of the 'peak'), that is pretty where I was in that picture with my arms stretched out, except I was on the east side, not the west side shown in this pic