September 6, 2022
Join us for a closing reception for the Downtown Kalispell Art Challenge on Friday, September 9th from 6-8pm at Montana Modern Fine Art. The Downtown Kalispell Art Challenge had local artists out painting all day long in front of downtown businesses. The prompt for each artist was to complete a painting inspired by the murals of Glacier National Park painted by Clarence Rundell. Read more about Clarence and his murals below. All of the paintings that were completed that day will be on display at the gallery for the closing reception and many of the artists will be in attendance. The works will be sold via an online auction. Bidding will stop promptly at 7:30pm MST on September 9th. You do not need to bid in person on this artwork and bidding is already open. Want to own one of these amazing art pieces? Let the bidding BEGIN!
Closing Reception
Friday, September 9th 6-8pm
Montana Modern Fine Art
127 Main Street
Kalispell, MT
$30 at the door
How does it work?
* Bid HERE on your favorite painting or paintings
* You’ll be notified if you’re outbid
* Bidding is open until 7:30pm MST on 9/9/2022
* Join us for the closing reception
* Take home your new painting!!
Artist Clarence Rundell lived in Kalispell in the early part of the 20th century. In 1936, he came into a downtown building and offered Tom Bogart and Arthur Hollensteiner, owners of the Eagle Shoe Store (now Rocky Mountain Outfitters), a chance to get some murals on their walls. They selected a series of Glacier Park landscapes based on photographs from the collection of T.R. Hileman, the official photographer of the Great Northern Railway. In Mr. Rundell’s recounting of the experience, he said, “I painted one mural a day from the photographs. I got $25 a painting.” (In today’s money, that would be around $500.) These remarkably preserved works are the only paintings of Mr. Rundell’s left in the downtown area. In reverence to Clarence Rundell completing a painting a day for ten days, we invited ten artists to paint simultaneously during a one day challenge. See the completed works HERE.
Where are the paintings now?
Marshall Noice, Heaven’s Peak
Ceres Bakery
318 Main Street
Madison Apple, Lake Josephine
The Kalispell Grand Hotel
100 Main Street
Tanya Lambrecht, Upper Two Medicine
Flowers by Hansen
128 Main Street
Alyssa Shaw, Scarface Point
Glacier Bank
202 Main Street
Tessa Heck, Upper Kintla Lake
Montavino Winery
38 1st Ave E, Suite D
Kenneth Yarus, Janet Lake
Rocky Mountain Outfitters
135 Main Street
Kerry Broughton, Trick Falls
Sage and Cedar
227 Main Street
Susan Guthrie, Lake MacDonald
The Toggery
327 Main Street
Gen Delorme, Flathead Lake
Sweet Peaks
343 Main Street