Montana Artworking by Cindy Betka

Yesterday I went mining for some good subject matter to paint. We live on an old mining claim. Back in the day, they dug for silver. I did not find silver but some rusted mining relics. These are mostly buried and grown over. As you can see in the photo of the mining cart, a tree and bush are growing out of it. The wheels to the cart are buried quite well. These artifacts sit by a spring, the flow from which is a bit low this year. The mining cart is just visible but well buried

This other menu from my mother and grandmother's boat trip, below; Kilian Zoll's painting 'A Traveling Journeyman'. Wikipedia write's about him as follows; Zoll studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm 1835-1839. Within the Academy, Zoll and his fellow students mostly treated mythical and historical subjects, but as soon as he became independent he devoted himself to genre painting . He travelled and made sketches through Sweden; Skåne , Halland , Småland and Dalarna . He participated in the academy exhibitions 1850, 1853, 1856 and 1858 with a total of 19 oil paintings. His paintings from this period address topics such as Children playing with a cat , Grandma's joy , Old Woman at the Spinning Wheel . In 1854 he traveled to Düsseldorf in the company of a fellow artist Bengt Nordenberg . In Düsseldorf he studied art together with another Swedish artist Marcus Larson - together they executed several paintings. H...

The Amtrak Empire Builder train runs from Chicago to Seattle. It travels through Glacier Park in the north-west corner of Montana. The views from the train are great. We were traveling into the setting sun and I was able to get these shots from our window seats. I was especially interested in the clouds and loved the sunlight from behind them. Here is the beginning of the park and the mountain range in the background coming from the east. This is East Glacier Lodge Going to the Sun Road in the park is spectacular if you ever get to visit there.