ONE DOWN.......

16"x20" Oil by Shirl Ireland

(from the Yellowstone Heritage & Research Center collection)

AND ANOTHER ONE ON THE WAY!

16"x20" Oil by Shirl Ireland

(from the Yellowstone Heritage & Research Center collection)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dipper -

Detail from a 'shore birds' painting

from the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center collection

In the winter wildlife abounds in Gardiner! We're always watching out the windows, since you never know what you might see. Out one window I just watched an eagle catch and eat a fish out of the Yellowstone River. Looked out another window, 2 bucks were sparing. And then, back to river viewing to watch a couple Dippers bobbing in and out of the water.

If you aren't familiar with Dippers (or Water Ouzels), they jump into the water going completely under in search of aquatic insects - year round! Amazing and fun to watch.

It was a great day to head into the Park and paint - 5 degrees with fresh snow, but no wind. REALLY quiet. On the way in we saw a grizzly at an elk carcass. VERY strange for a grizzly to still be 'out and about' this late in the year. The roads are snow covered now, so it was slow going into Lamar Valley where I wanted to paint. I'm working on a studio painting of that area now with elk and needed to take it back to the spot for some 'on-site' references. The eagle we saw on the way back out. Ahhh, I love where I live!

We just got back from a great art trip! First, we went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for the opening of Clyde Aspevig's show at the Steamboat Art Museum. It was fabulous! A phenomenal show of his work. He also did a wonderful painting demonstration that we attended. I can't say enough good things. Go see the show for yourself, it's up through the winter - we definitely recommend it! Then we headed to the Denver Art Museum. They have a show of Ernest Blumenschein's work. He was a founder of the Taos Society of Artists. What an amazing group of his work! That show was wonderful too. We saw a lot of awesome art in a short period of time. Now we're back to the studio and REALLY motivated to 'get producing'! Gotta go....

This week was our last painting class of this session. The class was a lot of fun and many were interested in continuing. It was great to see how many people 'got the bug' for painting! I'm hoping to teach another 6 week session after the Holidays. Lately, I've been studying more about Sargent, Sorolla, Inness, the Wyeths, along with some other 'Masters' from the past. (I confess, I'm a book junkie!) I thought some of this information could be interesting to add into our next session. As it gets closer, I'll post the specific class dates on our Events page.

Fresh snow on the gallery (and Electric Peak in the background) this morning

Last night was the Gardiner Christmas Stroll. There were loads of people. The gallery was packed! Everyone was so complimentary of our new gallery and our work. We really enjoyed visiting with friends and meeting so many new people. That was fun! Thanks to all who stopped by.

Last night at painting class I talked about color and light. I thought this would be a good subject to illustrate some of those points, so I did this sketch as an example for the class.

Today we decorated the gallery for the annual Gardiner Christmas Stroll this week. It's on Thursday Dec. 4th. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by between 5 pm and 8 pm for cookies and cocoa.