Montana Artworking by Cindy Betka

Last Friday we took a ride up to Helena on a lovely fall day. Actually it was a gorgeous fall day, about 60 degrees and sunshine. Today and yesterday are a contrast, snowy with a high of 14 degrees. Oh well, we will take what God has to give. So, I took lots of photos of various landscapes for painting ideas. The Kleffner Ranch is on the east end of Helena. It sits on the banks Prickly Pear Creek. It was built and established as a large cattle ranch in the 1800’s. Now on the National Historic Registry, it is a marvelous setting for special events and weddings. Check out their web site for more photos.  http://kleffnerranch.com

Currently I am working on 5 paintings. They are fairly small in size. If all goes well I will paint one of those in a much larger version. The main theme of this series is 'Barns with Atmosphere'. The barns are situated in all kinds of weather and lighting. The first painting below depicts a snowy day. It started out looking too much of a cliche. While working on it some more I made improvements. It is not complete. 12" X 9" Oil Endured 9" X 12" Oil