For roughly a year I have been intending to get on the blog train. Prior to that, I was so turned off by the word "blog", I avoided any thought of creating my own. It sounds like some sort of annoying body noise that middle schoolers can make when teacher's got their back turned - "Honk", "Burrrrpp", "Blog"!
I discovered that "artmonthly" was still available with blogger.com - I was thrilled to snatch it up. It described perfectly what I was looking for and ... about how often I wanted to post. So the title of my journal is "Art Monthly - A Montana Artist's Journal". To reach my post, just bookmark:
www.artmonthly.blogspot.com.
If you would like to subscribe to automatically receive an e-mail when I publish new posts, you may do so by signing up in the top right column. Again, I'm only planning on one, maybe two posts a month so you won't be inundated! We're shooting for occasional cultural enrichment only here.
There is also a place to subscribe to feeds below the email sign-up prompt.
6 Years in and to Big Sky...
in...
Six Years ago we took the artist's leap, and relocated to Big Sky Country from the Great Northwest. It was a move we made to be closer to the places that inspire and inform my landscape paintings. While it was Summer, 2003 when we left Seattle, it doesn't seem like six years ago. Maybe all the time I've spent on the road between then and now exhibiting is deducted from my long term internal memory clock, and so the "feels like" time is 4 1/2 years or so. Regardless, we have relished our time here in Bozeman. It is so central to everything we appreciate about the Rocky Mountain West - the rivers, the mountains, family, seasons, sunshine, and trout. While we can't live everywhere in the West, we can get to all of the places we love within a day or so.
to...Many of you who've been to Bozeman know that it is about an hour's drive to Big Sky (the ski resort town). I'm a little embarrassed to report that, until yesterday, I had never been to Big Sky proper. I've driven past the turn off to Big Sky on Hwy 191 a hundred times, and while I've shown work at galleries and shows in Big Sky, I've never actually driven the 5 extra miles to the Mountain Village, where the ski resort sits at the base of majestic Lone Peak. So, I planned a day of plein air painting that was to include my first trip to Big Sky/Lone Peak and then a drive down to Ennis, MT to paint along the Madison River. Pictured here is the aptly titled, "Six Years to Big Sky", a 6" x 8" plein air oil I completed on my trip. I haven't done plein air since last fall so it was good to get out again and back into practice.
Enjoy.
PS - the part about the trip to Ennis didn't happen as the local fly shop guy told me that winding road on my map from Big Sky to Ennis is private. That bit of info, plus our summer afternoon mountain showers were just the two excuses I needed to pack up the paints and pull on the waders. I fished the West Fork of the Gallatin and Gallatin Canyon with frequent success for 10-12 rainbows. I'm planning on getting to Ennis this afternoon for that other painting...
Also, yes, I will be adding a link from my website to artmonthly soon (soon being a relative in terms of weeks or months)!
PSS - This is my Saturday the 11th - morning update. Yesterday, I drove to Ennis to paint along the Madison River. I ended up finding this area called Ruby Creek with rock outcroppings jutting out of the hillside. The results:
"Ruby Creek Hills" 9"x12" Oil
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