Montana Artworking by Cindy Betka

Andrew Wyeth’s career spanned seven decades. He painted the people and landscapes of his birthplace, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and his summer house in mid-coast Maine. These were the subjects he knew well and this was his world. I have grown to know my beautiful mountainous surroundings and made them my world. Even though I have not spent my entire career of life here, I feel as though I have. Out Back Window, oil, 16" X 20"  What could be better on a cold snowy day to paint ‘en plein air’ from your window. Here I sit nice and cozy inside viewing the scene under different lighting conditions as the day and seasons change. This painting caught the winter sun as it was about to start setting low in the southwestern sky. The sun’s ray were shinning unobstructed through a path in the trees to land on the tops of the smaller pines at the end of that corridor.

Snowy Creek,  oil, 20' X 20" Just a few minutes ago I went outside into the beautiful falling snow. It is the wet heavy consistency which is good for building snow sculptures. Since I did not have the ambition to build snow sculptures, I came back inside. Yesterday I decided that this painting was finished. It is a scene from a creek just down the road from us. The lighting was best as the sun was rising with a yellow glow, shining through a blowing snowy mist.