This is where home is - in these sky views and hues of a summer's evening.

Beyond the gates of the Jentel cattle ranch, my artistic journey will travel on.

How fitting it was to be here at the water's edge for the past month. The perfect time to think about art and place and for place to affect my art. Today is the last day of residency. Sad. I'll miss my bright and spacious studio. I'll miss the gentle landscape. I'll miss new friends. I'll miss Lower Piney Creek, a creek that was my spiritual guide each day and encouraged me to move forward with my art even when I had great doubts about it. But I do have the Clark Fork River to return to, and I'll find ways to appreciate it more than I have before.

My blog will probably go on hiatus for a while, but I thank you for reading. Feel free to send a brief (or long) comment, just so that I know who was out there following along with my experience. I'd love to "hear" from you.

Here in northeastern Wyoming, the changing colors of spring are subtle and quiet. I love the personality of this landscape. I will miss it. But I do have western Montana to return to. It's personality is a little more outspoken, but it lets me be.

All things come to an end, and some of it goes in the garbage.

The ubiquitous color of early May.

I couldn't resist a quick and little creekscape.

During the evenings or at night, here at Jentel, when my physical energy has been spent on painting, I go back to my "map" drawings. This piece is ink on vellum and approximately 3" by 4." It is The Heart of the Matter, and is a piece in preparation for a show Pamela Caughey and I will have at The Brink Gallery in Missoula in September. Here, I am only showing this piece from our upcoming show. (I don't want to give away our show ahead of time.)

Check out Pamela's work here.

Sometimes artists are required to explain what art (and place) mean to them. I've never done this formally, but at the Jentel residency, the visual artists and writers give a presentation to SAGE, an art group in Sheridan, during the third week of residency. I'm really into my explanation as you can see. However, I look like a crazed bird ready to chirp out some warning, such as beware of the predators you see here.

photo courtesy of Jennifer Baker-Henry

One of my goals for Jentel is to move my interest in the micro world of nature, in this case lichen, from one-half inch square pen drawings, as you see here below, to large paintings.


I'm learning to work with acrylic paints, so I've thoroughly enjoyed the experimentation. The ten-inch square painting below is one step in the direction of my goal. I worked on a series of eight-inch and then ten-inch square panels as tests, which have led up to 22" by 28" panels. I plan to go even larger, but this will be beyond the Jentel residency.

Sunday evening @ Jentel. Storms coming in and out.

The last day of April in northeastern Wyoming.

A contrast to the snow, in red, yellow, and blue.

Sixty degrees and sunny yesterday. Two inches of snow for today. This is spring weather in the north west.

Small studies I'm doing with acrylics on yupo paper.

For more information about this month's residency at Jentel, check here for Jennifer Baker-Henry's blog. Jennifer is one of the two writers in residence this month, and her blog provides some interesting details and anecdotes about life here on the ranch. Enjoy!

Today's soft silent snow.
Last night's Vivaldi induced energy.

All in a day's work - well, some of it.

This is an example of scoria, which you see all over the hills in northeastern Wyoming. Scoria comes from coal-seam fires, the underground smouldering of a coal deposit. The fires in the coal seams are often started by lightning or grass or forest fires, and they can smoulder long after the flames have burnt out. They propagate along cracks in geologic structures. These types of fires have occurred for over three million years in eastern Wyoming and Montana and have shaped the surrounding landscapes.

The log cabin above houses the two writers' studios, and the structure below that houses the four artists' studios, here at Jentel in Banner, Wyoming.
For information about the Jentel Artists Residency, click here.