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.

Bannack is one of the best preserved ghost towns in the west. The town's history began over 140 years ago in July 1862 when gold was discovered. It is named for the Bannack Indians who along with the Lemhi Shoshone were in the area. You can obtain a self guided tour book at the visitors center and walk around partaking in it's rich history. I became drawn to the wonderful variety of weathered doors and windows. To give you a taste and feel for the town, here is a sampling of those photos I took.

Currently on my easel is a painting of wild Oregon Grape. They do not grow much higher than 1 foot around here. Right now they are in bloom. Their blooms are a bright cluster of yellow. These blooms will later turn into a frosted berry or grape. But they look like a small blueberry, not very many on the small plants. Field sketches and notes; Oil Painting in progress on the easel

One of my projects was just featured on  http://network.artcenter.edu/ The Behance Network's   Art Center Gallery .  The Art Center Gallery Curation Team  features a small number of projects every week.  

My maternal grandmother was from Sweden. In 1925 she took my mother (born in the US), back to her homeland by ship for a visit. Wish I could have asked more about that trip in detail when they were both living. Bless them both dearly. My mother kept a couple of the menus from the ship's voyage. These were illustrated with Swedish paintings. The one menu had a painting by Anders Zorn on the cover. Below is the scan of the menu; not printed in color in those days. A bit interesting to see these and makes me wonder about the voyage. How fascinating that must have been for my mother and grandmother. Anders Zorn (February 18, 1860 – August 22, 1920) was a Swedish painter and printmaker. Some of his paintings remind me of John Singer Sargent's paintings and I wonder if they ever met. I must do some research on that for curiosity. I did find a photo of the original painting on the menu; 'After the Bath' Here are more paintings by Anders Zorn ...