2023: Past, Present and Future

Where does the time go? My last blog post was in January and now it is September!

In April, I exhibited my painting series, The Four Seasons of Montana: From the River Bottom to the Clouds Above in a slideshow to accompany a concert of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at Inspiration Hall at the Norm Asbjornson building at Montana State University on April 16th. The performance featured young musicians supported by Baroque Music Montana.

What a thrill to see my paintings with the music that I had been listening to the entire time I was creating the series!

In July, Baroque Music Montana performed a concert of music by Archangelo Corelli in my studio. Musicians Carrie Krause (violin), Sarah Stone (cello), and Gabe Shuford (harpsichord) were absolutely amazing. What a gift to have these musicians visit this corner of the world and share their love of music from the Baroque era. The harpsichord itself was a work of art.

For this concert, I displayed two paintings inspired by the concert program. Composer Archangelo Corelli was an avid art collector and held paintings by the great French landscape painter, Nicolas Poussin, in his collection. The last paintings by Poussin included a series called The Four Seasons. I used his spring and summer compositions as inspiration for two paintings that I entitled Earthly Paradise and Poussin’s Montana Summer.

In the spring and summer of 2023, I had 2 paintings selected for juried art shows. The painting Amethyst Dusk was selected for the Big Sky Arts Auction in March and Diving Kingfisher was exhibited during the Sweet Pea Festival in Bozeman for the month of July.

Mid-summer, I completed a commission for a series of three paintings to reflect the wildlife and landscape for a local landowner.

As the summer progressed, I began work on a new series of paintings inspired by maps produced by the USGS that detail the geologic and hydrologic features of Yellowstone National Park, as well as maps of migration routes of ungulates inhabiting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, as published in Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming's Ungulates. The first painting represents the geological features of the park, the 2nd is hydrothermal, based on a map produced using SkyTEM technology. The third painting is inspired by the migration routes of mule deer, pronghorn, elk, moose, and bighorn sheep. The last painting is a work-in-progress: migration routes of the Wyoming Sublette Pronghorn herd.

On November 1st, I will be hosting a second concert. Carrie Krause (baroque violin) and John Lenti (theorbo) “present the next chapter of their duo “a la Francaise!” in celebration of the recent album release of Sonata Tramontana. Repertoire by Couperin, de la Guerre, Rebel, Bach, and others.”

There will be a reception in my studio pre-concert, beginning at 5 pm, and the performance will be held next door, starting at 6 pm. Visit Baroque Music Montana’s website for more information and tickets: https://baroquemusicmontana.org/