How many shades of red does a painter need? Just one. More.
I do love the tension created by adjacency of similar colors and similar values. It makes me happy.
Here’s an example of a palette of reds that I find especially visually satisfying. Perylene Red, Quinacridone Magenta, Cadmium Red, and Cadmium Orange.
“It’s alright now, I’ve learned my lesson well. You see, you can’t please every one. So, you’ve got to please yourself.” Ricky Nelson
Fall is a spectacular season here in northwest Montana. The weather is cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon, and the colors seem to be especially vibrant this year. Here’s a scene looking east across the Flathead River just north of the village of Bigfork, Montana.
I confess my favorite thing about this time of year is every day we’re one day closer to ski season!
It’s always a bittersweet event for the crew of our Frers 33 racing sloop Valkyrie, the annual All Islands Race, last race of the season.
And to make matters worse, we had much too much light air. Nerve wracking, relentlessly looking for a little more wind. Even a LITTLE more please. Preferably our own private whisper of wind that we, and no one else, managed to find!
Happily, due in no small part to intense concentration, and stealthy, near motionless crew work (don’t rock the boat!) we were solidly in second place when the time limit expired and we were allowed to abandon the race and break out the cooler! Funny how the lightest air races are the biggest nail biters for our win obsessed crew!
Very different conditions from the Labor Day Regatta last week where the breeze was up over 30 mph and we slaughtered the competition.
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
I’m absolutely certain this is the first double yellow highway line that has sneaked into a painting of mine. Highways yes, double yellow lines, no. This is the painting I raced to the finish line last Saturday as part of the Downtown Kalispell Art Challenge. It is, in fact, a new interpretation of Clarence Rundell’s mural of the Going To The Sun Road and Heaven’s Peak.
My painting, and nine others by Montana painters are up for grabs via an online auction benefiting Kalico Art Center and The Kalispell Downtown Association. Take a look and place a bid. Thanks!
This Saturday is the Downtown Kalispell Art Challenge. Ten extraordinarily talented and world renowned artists (all false modesty aside) will be recreating one of Clarence Rundell’s Glacier National Park murals, which have, for years, graced the walls of Rocky Mountain Outfitter.
I’ve been assigned the iconic view of the Going to the Sun Road and Heaven’s Peak viewed from the tunnel just below the loop. You know the spot! We’ll see how it goes!
Paintings will be sold via an online auction through Kalico to benefit the Kalispell Downtown Association and Kalico Art Center. Check it out, you can bid right now, why wait!
There is a crispness to the early morning air here in Northwest Montana that can only mean one thing, fall is just around the corner. It’s been a hot, dry August, but with clear skies for the most part. It’s so nice to have “summer” and not “fire season.” So far anyway. The aspens at our home are, believe it or not, starting to turn gold!
We have a good number of trees that I’ve added to the mature Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir habitat over the years to keep me supplied with inspiration. No harm in planting your own inspiration, right?
I’m of the opinion that there is no such thing as too much color! And I have certainly lived up to that belief with this painting, “North Wind, Chewing Black Bones Camp.” The colors I’ve used are strongly influenced by the bold colors favored by Blackfeet traditional artists.
Years ago I was honored with a Name Giving Ceremony by The Blackfeet Tribe. Earl Old Person, who gave me my name, told us that he was at Chewing Black Bones Camp on the east edge of Glacier National Park when he had a vision that included my name. Over the years I’ve spent time there off and on, and like so much of the east slope of The Rockies, the wind is more on than off! With this painting I wanted to depict that near constant northerly breeze that I’ve experienced at the camp.
I don’t recall exactly what made me decide to take Ms. Petri’s Latin class when I went into the seventh grade. But the three years in her tutelage were, for the most part, really fun! Okay, conjugating verbs was not the fun part. But it was a class I looked forward to. I must say, three years of French or Spanish might have given me basic language skills that I would have put to use more often.
On the other hand, when I paint a picture that includes the common lilac, I can make the title somewhat less prosaic by using the Latin name for the plant!
Here’s an anomaly for me. One color and no trees whatsoever! This painting is a revisitation of a view from a sailing vacation Jackie and I enjoyed with friends in the British Virgin Islands. I can almost feel the cool breeze and the warm Caribbean sun when looking at this painting. Great memories.
Hoist the sail, see how the mainsail sets, set a course from Virgin Gorda Sound: N18 42.100 W64 24.200 and GO! Just watch out for the coral, don’t get too far east of the rhumb line and you’ll be fine. Lobster for lunch!