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.