Lizbeth Sabol
Annapolis, Maryland
Artist in Residence Summer 1998
Each work of art I create is another step forward in an expedition
of discovery. The excitement of opening oneself up to knowledge gained
through the process of venturing into previously unexplored territory
- the unknown has tantalized explorers of all kinds for eons - fuels
the desire to forge ahead. The importance of Glacier National Park
as being the first International Peace Park, as well as its status
as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are highly inspirational and reflect
my mindset regarding our parks. A sense of place plays a prominent
role in the development of my work… I have continually sought to infuse
my artistic sensibilities with the inimitable direct experience of
mountains. Educated at the College of William & Mary, I hold Bachelor
Degrees in both Studio Fine Arts and Biology. I have always been drawn
to Nature as well as the Arts. My specific focus is to create "portraits"
of the mountains in stone.
Nicholas Oberling
Kalispell, Montana
Artist in Residence Summer 1999
I was raised in rural New York State, but spent a great deal of my
youth traveling throughout Europe and the Middle East, thanks to my
academic parents' scholarly research requirements. After studying
Fine Arts and Art History at Cornell University, I spent ten years
at the Art Students League of New York, earning a certificate in Fine
Arts Painting. Glacier National Park is the landscape that I was born
to paint. In 1997, a trip to Glacier Park provided the inspiration
not only for a show's worth of paintings of the magnificent landscape,
but for a permanent move from New York to Montana. Montana, and especially
Glacier Park struck such a chord with me that my wife and I had transplanted
ourselves out here in less than a year.
Haakon Ensign
Kalispell, Montana
Artist in Residence Summer 2000
My goal wherever I go, whether Glacier Park or a back street in Kalispell,
is to paint the magic of the place. Every place on earth has its own
personality, natural cycles, and rhythms. Each place has a unique
feeling embodied by the people, landscapes, and animals. It is my
goal to seek out and capture what makes a place great. Glacier Park
has an undeniable magic about it. It is a grand and diverse landscape
with infinite possibilities.
Gregory I. McHuron
Jackson, Wyoming
Artist in Residence Summer 1999
Residency at Glacier National Park: 1999
I graduated from Oregon State University in 1968 with a Bachelor's
Degree in Art as well as being schooled in Forestry and Fisheries
and Wildlife. After graduating, I worked as a designer and Art Director
for an interior design firm, while developing a market for my paintings.
I decided to move to the Jackson, Wyoming area in 1973 to be close
to the subjects I prefer to paint as I work. I prefer painting on
location as much as possible as the drama and excitement which occurs
all around me is difficult to re-create in a studio environment. When
I paint these rapidly-changing scenes, I try to put into each of them
the feelings and excitement I felt while watching the scene unfold.
If I can capture that particular feeling, I know that those viewing
my works will come to feel some of the emotions and excitement that
motivated my wanting to record this fleeting moment.
D. Michael McCarthy
Sedona, Arizona
Artist in Residence Summer 1998
My education in the arts was both academic and self-taught. I attended
Washington University, St. Louis University, and Fontbonne College,
aquiring a B.F.A. in painting in 1973. I did graduate work at Otis
Art Institute in Los Angeles. Before I had any degree, I was fortunate
to befriend a lifelong mentor and fellow landscape painter, Charles
Rhinehart, under whose tutalage I assembled my first one-man show
in 1971. My work is directly inspired by the National Parks, some
of the most remarkable bastions of wilderness that my artistic forbearers
like Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt fought so hard to preserve.
Over the years, I have made it my personal mission to visit all the
spots Moran painted from, and I have worked with two different superintendents
of Yellowstone National Park who granted me access to spots that Moran
evidently worked from.
Donna Jo Massie
Canmore, Alberta
Artist in Residence Summer 1999
Canada Society of Canadian Artists (SCA) Alberta Society of Artists
(ASA)
Studies: Auburn University (B. Ed.) Sanford University
For the past twenty-three years, I have lived in the Canadian Rockies,
painting, hiking, and exploring the area around Canmore, Alberta.
This love of the mountain environment began in my hometown of Cherokee,
North Carolina, in the Great Smokey Mountains. My families have lived
there for generations, some of them receiving recognition as artists
in weaving, basketry and painting. Painting the mountain landscape
has been my main artistic pursuit. I have presented workshops for
community, corporate, and special interest groups. Some of these workshops
have been in remote backcountry huts and lodges, taking people to
Lake O'Hara and Kananasakis Country. I was Artist In Residence at
the Columbia Icefields. This was a unique opportunity to explore the
high alpine glacier area between Banff and Jasper.
Stephen Lawson
Morgantown, West Virginia
Artist in Residence Summer 2001
As an immigrant from Scotland, where I grew up in the Highlands, I
have an emotional interest in your region. I read James Hunter's 1996
"Glencoe and the Indians" and of course know the Scottish
locations and history that brought Angus McDonald to North America
in 1838. My work happens in actual, or experienced time. Using elapsed
time via photography I can only work while "there." Nothing
further can be created afterwards. These images are made in cameras
I have constructed by hand; some are driven by small electric motors
and make but one picture per day. The works are presented in a poetic
mode that hopefully causes us to reflect on our relation to 'time
in the world' individually.
Kristen Gjerdset
Wisconsin Lutheran College
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Artist in Residence Summer 2000
Landscape is constantly being reshaped and transformed as time passes
due to weather, seasonal, geological, and man-made events. American
artists have left a legacy by creating a diary visualizing these ever-changing
aspects as well as the lasting geographical features of this dramatic
and untamed environment. It is my hope that by expressing Glacier
through creative means, the aesthetic and spiritual beauty of this
park today will be remembered and experienced by others tomorrow.
As an artist, I find it is important to be physically present in the
landscape because it equips me with experiences to create more honest
and reverential works and it is spiritually renewing....In so doing,
I hope to foster in others an understanding of why these lands have
been set aside for safekeeping as well as inspiring others to protect
the environment at a local level
Bill and Gloria Garrison
Russellville, Arkansas
Artists in Residence Summer 1998
The National Parks are a great asset to our country and we would like
to do what we can to help maintain them for future generations. I
enter at least one painting every year in the Arts for the Parks competition.
I was selected as artist-in-residence for the National Park Service
at Buffalo National River. We are both members of the Arkansas League
of Artists, and Arkansas Artists Registry.
Bill Garrison
My most noteworthy painting is my entry in the 1991 Arts for the Parks
competition Deep Shadows along the Buffalo. This painting was of a
couple in a canoe floating down the Buffalo River below a high bluff
in a bend in the river. The majority of the painting was in "deep"
shadow with sunlight striking the canoe and the gravel bar on the
river. The dramatic lighting effect is what made the painting interesting.
The painting was selected as one of the top 100 and so was published
in that year's catalog. The painting sold at the silent auction and
artist's reception in Jackson, Wyoming. More recently painted is a
body of work (16 paintings) of Colorado landscapes inspired by a trip
to the Maroon Bells and San Juan National Forest area. These paintings
were exhibited in Russellville, Arkansas in a one-man-show.
Gloria Garrison
Her painting Marshmallows was selected for the Bruce Roy Anderson
Award in the 26th annual Mid-Southern Watercolorists Exhibition. Gloria
is a signature member of that organization. The painting sold at the
opening of the show. The painting is an intimate portrait of "Marshmallows,"
a common Arkansas wildflower usually found along lake shores and marshes.
Painted with transparent watercolor, the painting has a flowing luminous
quality.
Parke Goodman
Livingston, Montana
Artist in Residence Summer 1999
Parke Goodman holds a deep respect for the long held traditions of
representational art. As a painter of Western landscapes, Goodman
is strongly influenced by the Hudson River, and Rocky Mountain Schools,
and artists George Innes, Alfred Bierstadt, and William Keith. His
objective is not to copy what he sees, but to capture the emotion
felt when witnessing nature. The result is a sensitive description
of nature that could best be described as a "romantic landscape."
Born in Iowa in 1956, Parke Goodman moved to Colorado with his family
at age twelve. Upon completion of high school, he moved to Bozeman,
Montana to study architecture at Montana State University. After several
years of study, Goodman left to begin his search for a personal means
of expression. Goodman travels throughout the Northern Rockies painting
small sketches which he uses to create larger studio paintings. Once
in the studio, the paintings are created slowly with many layers of
paint. This technique, known as impasto, involves laying down a thick
layer of paint. After allowing this layer to dry, Parke "scumbles,"
or drags, wet paint over the dry surface. finally, he applies glazes
(thin layers of transparent paint) to give a translucent quality to
his paintings.
While technique is important, Goodman feels the final objective is
the poetic portrayal of light, color, space and atmosphere creating
what can be described as a symphony on canvas. "I have always
considered the mountains in Glacier to be the most spectacular in
the United States. As a self-taught artist, I have been a full-time
oil painter since 1991. Specializing in traditional landscapes, I
complete about 100 pieces a year. I cut my own boards, prepare the
canvases, and build and gold leaf my own frames. I share my studio-gallery,
Mordam Art, with my wife, Bonnie."
Thomas English
Great Falls, Montana
Artist in Residence Summer 1999
I have spent a number of years pursuing a professional level of quality
in outdoor, ("plein air") and studio. I also feel that Glacier
National Park is one of the most splendid and beautiful locations
on earth and I have invested many hours, days, and weeks visiting,
photographing, sketching, painting, and hiking its varied terrain.
It is my greatest desire to be able to capture and interpret the spirit
and grandeur of Glacier National Park on my canvases both spontaneously
on location, and in the studio. It is my normal method to paint small
studies on site and then to reproduce some of these pieces as larger
paintings using the studies as references. Lately, however, I have
been doing more finished and some larger pieces on location. I am
fascinated by the extreme peaks, low hanging clouds, dramatic colors,
fast moving water, waterfalls, placid lakes, and infinite views that
are Glacier. I currently reside in Great Falls, Mt., and as a result
have been able to study many of the works of John Fery who so capably
captured the magnificence of Glacier Park's valleys and peaks. I too,
want to produce works of such magnitude and beauty. My work is realistic
and at the same time painted in a somewhat loose and implied style
so that viewed from a distance appears very real but close up contains
many varied brushstrokes and very little actual detail.
Josh Elliot
Salem, Oregon
Artist in Residence Summer 2000
I grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho, which is fairly close to Glacier. It
was from there that I took my first trip into the park in 1992. I
was awe struck, to say the least. After learning to paint, and gaining
more and more appreciation for the landscape, I couldn't wait to paint
in Glacier. I finally got that chance in the summer of 1999. I spent
a relatively short amount of time there. I was there for six days
and I came away with twenty-one studies. I drew more inspiration from
Glacier than any other location that I have painted so far. I am absolutely
in love with the landscape in the park. Dudley Dana Missoula, Montana
I was raised in Columbus, Montana, Close to Yellowstone National Park
and perhaps because of the proximity and natural ties I have spent
the last twenty-five years making landscape photographs in the Yellowstone
area. In the last two years I have begun to passionately explore Glacier.
At least twice a year I have spent concentrated time photographing
particular landscapes without the intrusion of everyday life with
its cares, worries, and distractions. Without exception, those times
have produced the most dramatic, vivid landscapes of the year.
Joe Abbrescia
Kalispell, Montana
Artist in Residence Summer 1998
Joe Abbrescia studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. He
received the Juror's Best of Show Award at the 2002 and 1998 CM Russell
Museum Show and Auction as well as Best Painting and Artist's Choice
Awards at prior CMR Shows. In 1998 Abbrescia was chosen to participate
in the Glacier Park Artist in Residence program and a major oil Spring's
Mountain Kingdom was selected as Glacier National Park Art Collections
fine art limited edition print. He received the people's choice award
at the 2001 Montana Land Reliance benefit, Artist's for Open Space.
Joe Abbrescia is recognized as one of America's most distinguished
painters, and was featured in the PBS special on America's National
Parks painting outside McDonald Lodge.
Betty Billups
Spirit Lake, Idaho
Artist in Residence Summer 2001
Betty Billups regularly makes the trek from her home near Spirit lake,
Idaho to paint in Glacier National Park. She has been an artist-in-residence
there, and just can't seem to fight the allure of these vistas on
"The Crown of the Continent." The Hockaday Museum's gift
shop sold her recent oil paintings in a special companion exhibition
to Call of the Mountains. She has a sure hand, and gorgeous eye for
the character of this very special place in Northwest Montana.
Brent Cotton
Maui, Hawaii
Artist in Residence Summer 2001
Brent was raised On his family's cattle ranch in Idaho. His first
introduction into art was through the teaching of his grandmother,
an accomplished watercolorist His interest in art continued to grow
and lie was blessed with an excellent high school art teacher who
encouraged him to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a successful
artist. Following high school he worked as a hunting and fishing guide
in Idaho. Montana, and Alaska. These experiences influenced his paintings
and combined his love of the outdoors with his art. Brent has attended
several workshops over the years to further his art education. He's
studied with Howard Terpning, John Seery-Lester, and Jim Wilcox to
name a few. He works in all types of mediums with oils being his favorite.
Plein air landscape painting is his specialty. Brent spends the summer
and fall months with his family in the Bitteroot valley of Montana,
traveling and painting the beauty of the Northwest The winters and
spring are spent on the island of Maui. offering a change of climate
and scenery.
Keith Bond
San Antonio, Texas
Artist in Residence Summer 2002
The West, especially her mountainous wilderness, has a special place
in my heart. A place that conjures up emotions more easily conveyed
through paint than words. The unscathed landscape is rapidly declining.
Fortunately, there are protected places such as Glacier National Park
where one can still find nature in her purest form; pristine and fresh.
In such places, I often become lost in quiet contemplation and inspired
to reach new heights. I find joy and satisfaction in the escape to
solitude. Such places of retreat must remain available for all to
enjoy. Through my art, I wish to convey my reverence for nature and
my awe for the varied ways in which she manifests herself.
Painting from life on location is the only way to accurately capture
a sense of atmosphere and light. I have always used plein air painting
as a means of discipline and understanding. I believe that sharing
with others such insights as to why I paint what I do, how I 'see'
nature, and how I transfer that inspiration to canvas, would help
fulfill my objective of sharing my passion for the Western landscape
with others. My hope is that what I express through paint will touch
someone else's soul and bring them, if only slightly, to a better
respect and appreciation for the delicate and threatened beauties
found within the Park, and on a larger scale, found throughout the
entire world.
Marilynn Mallory
Decatur, Georgia
Artist in Residence Summer 1998
The focus of my artwork is wilderness. A hiker and backpacker, I delight
in the sights, smells, and sounds of wild places and their power to
restore my creative spirit. I paint both to express this love of wilderness
and to share the experience with other people. My hope is that my
work not only gives people pleasure, but motivates them to value and
preserve wild places. Since one of my goals of my work is to showcase
the diversity of American wilderness, it is important to me personally
and professionally to be able to depict the rugged mountain environment
of Glacier. During the school year I present a program called "The
Artist in Wilderness" in schools all over Georgia. In this program
I share my experiences in exploring national parks and monuments through
the photographs and paintings I have made of these places.
My objective is to provide children -- most of whom will never travel
very far outside their own communities -- a glimpse of the extraordinary
beauty of the lands of which they are future custodians. My hope is
that by learning to appreciate this heritage, they will grow up supporting
its preservation.
Margaret Huddy
Alexandria, Virginia
Artist in Residence Summer 2002
I have been painting since I was 12 years old, studying at the University
of the Arts and Moore College of Art, both in Philadelphia, PA where
I grew up. I have worked in a great variety of media but have concentrated
on watercolor landscapes for the past 36 years. Having been a military
wife with no quarters large enough for a studio I painted only on
location until we settled permanently in Virginia in 1980.
I have maintained a studio in the Torpedo Factory Art Center, a public
art facility in Alexandria, VA where I paint and welcome the public.
However I have continued to paint en plein air when the weather
is fine as well as on my travels around the world. To me that experience
enables me to remember the color of light when working in my studio
as well as bringing great joy to myself as well as my students and
collectors. I currently teach at the Corcoran College of Art and Design
in Washington, DC and The Art League School in Alexandria, VA.
For the past ten years I have taken students abroad to paint in Italy,
Tunisia, Ireland, and Canada. Working on location is an absolute necessity
that enables me to remember the colors of the natural world when I
am working photographs in the studio. I also write articles for Watercolor
Magic magazine highlighting the methods I use to paint comfortably
out of doors. I was an artist in residence at Frost Valley YMCA camp
in the Catskill Mountains of New York state for three years. I was
happy to share my work not only in a special program but was visited
by the campers when I was working in the field. Wherever I paint on
location I have people stop in to see how a painting develops.
Kathy Hodge
Warren , Rhode Island
Artist in Residence Summer 2000
I was very excited and honored to be chosen as an artist in residence
at Glacier National Park. The forces of nature have been the focus
of my work for many years. The fact that the Glacier's topography
was formed by the forces that created the Rocky Mountains 170 million
years ago, and that the relatively recent glacial carving of these
rocks has exposed layers of rock which reveal the very origins of
our earth, especially draws me to this park. Snow and ice imagery
has always been important in my work. In studying the history of Glacier,
it is interesting to me that many of the artists who, through their
work helped to preserve it, were drawn to Montana from other places:
Thomas Moran from England, Winold Reiss from Munich, John Fery from
Austria, and of course Charles Russell from St Louis. We are very
fortunate that the park system exists and preserves the dramatic expression
of the powerful forces which created the earth and continue to affect
our existence. As a painter I am very grateful that opportunities
exist for artists to live and work in these special places.
Mel Crawford
Washington, Connecticut
Artist in Residence Summer 2000
"I have an ongoing love affair with Montana. In June of 1999,
I spent a week in Glacier National Park and the surrounding area,
and I was thrilled to be there. My first visit to Montana was in the
early fifties. The grandeur of the mountains was spellbinding to a
young fellow who had never seen real mountains, or bears or elk. Since
that time it has been my ambition to paint everything I had seen on
my whirlwind visit to Montana."
Mel Crawford has lived in the Washington, Connecticut area for over
30 years. He has exhibited his work throughout the United States and
Canada. His paintings can be found in museums and in the homes of
private collectors. Crawford is a past winner of the Franklin Mint
Gold Medal for watercolor and a winner of several Grumbacher Gold
Medals for excellence. Collectors will remember him for the "Flags
of Canada" series, the Flags of the United Nations," and
the "Seals of the Fifty States" series.
Twice a finalist in the "Arts for the Parks" competition,
his entry "Summer Treasures" was chosen by Ambassador Robert
Strauss to hang in the Ambassador's residence during his tenure in
Moscow. Crawford's painting "Alert" won third prize in the
1994 Wyoming Conservation Stamp Art Contest. In 1999, Crawford was
awarded the Kent Art Association's prestigious Medal of Merit.
Gregory William Frux
Brooklyn, New York
Artist in Residence Summer 2001
I had the great good fortune to visit Glacier on several brief occasions.
I was impressed by the access to high alpine country, abundant wildlife
and dramatic sedimentary mountains. Whenever I can, I seize the opportunity
to work in nature.
During a previous summer I took a three-month leave of absence from
my job to be an artist in residence at the Center for Symbolic Studies
in New Paltz, New York. During that time I produced a series of paintings
about time and change -- ruins of farms, quarries, cliffs, returning
forests, and abandoned mines, and a cement plant. Additionally, I
have traveled extensively throughout in National Parks in the U.S.
and Canada, Mexico and South America, and recently Central Asia. I
always travel with a sketchbook and often my oil paints. These travel
and residence related works have been exhibited in locations as diverse
as NYC's Lincoln Center and the National Museum of Art, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
My working method is simple and straightforward: I do quick and sustained
drawings in pencil, charcoal and ink, and I paint with oils on small
prepared canvases or panels, using a portable easel or sitting on
the ground. I do less than a third of my work back in the studio,
recreating from memory, using sketches and photo reference. This work
style lends itself to outdoor exploration, both by car and on foot.
My extensive hiking experience helps here as well.
Dudley Dana
Missoula, Montana
Artist in Residence Summer 2000
I was raised in Columbus, Montana, close to Yellowstone National Park
and perhaps because of the proximity and natural ties I have spent
the last twenty-five years making landscape photographs in the Yellowstone
area.
In the last two years I have begun to passionately explore Glacier.
At least twice a year I have spent concentrated time photographing
particular landscapes without the intrusion of everyday life with
its cares, worries, and distractions. Without exception, those times
have produced the most dramatic, vivid landscapes of the year.