Montana Artworking by Cindy Betka

Please join me [or come to] the closing reception of the SCAPES exhibit at Radius gallery in downtown Missoula.  My work was juried into this show and I'd love for you to see it.  It features 60 other artists along with me.  The reception is Aug 7th from 5 - 8 .  It's the last time this exhibit will be seen together, so we're going out with a bang! You can read more about the show on the Radius  website   and  facebook  pages.   Hope you can make it. My painting, 'Flourishing' has SOLD from this exhibition.

After living here for over a decade, we finally went to the Mining Museum. It was more extensive than we thought. Very interesting set up with a ton of artifacts. We did not go through the separate underground mine tour, however there are displays showing some of the activities that went on underground. The photos here show a good deal of the mining not the village areas displays. Head Frame; elevator to go down into the mines Hoisting Room inside the the head frame building Miner's Lockers Snow Mobile

'Rest Spot'   8" X 8" Oil A small painting with a warm color scheme. I completed this a week ago and set it aside. Glancing at it every now and then I knew there was something about it that bothered me. The highlight shape on the rock edge was too prominent and the curve needed to be broken up. I mixed a muted yellow for the top portion which helped. The water reflections also were broken up a bit. With the changes, I was satisfied.

This is one of my paintings I currently am working on. It started out without the duck. As I was painting I knew it was missing something, hence the duck. So far it is working out OK. Stay tuned for further developments.

Side Contemplation This painting is 12" X 16" oil on cradled wood panel. Currently, I am working on similar paintings in this series. Most of the paintings are small. I have a few frames that will frame 3 of them. Otherwise I usually paint on the 2" cradled wood panels and 'gallery wrap' the painting on the sides, fore-going frames.

A western painter, Gerard Delano was known for his paintings of the Navajo peoples and their way of life. He referred to his style as ‘designed realism’. From viewing his paintings you can see a minimalist, graceful composition, as well as, a nice soft handling of paint. He believed that the most important basis of good art is the strong emotional feeling the artist puts into creating art. Being a devote Christian, Delano’s philosophy of art was such that his God-given gift was to give beauty to the world. He studied under N.C. Wyeth and Harvey Dunn, which had a heavy influence on his style. Detail of 'Moonlight Stampede'