Big Skies On a Big Lake

Montana is big skies, vivid blues, enormous clouds that seem endless. It's the kind of"big" that brings everything immediately into perspective for me. You feel small. You are in awe. You realize that creation is indeed magnificent and we are privileged to behold its glory.

My favorite time of day was early morning. The light streaming in the cabin's window would beckon us to awake and, with coffee cups in hand (and my sketchbook!), we would walk down to the shoreline. This morning an enormous bank of clouds moved over the Mission Range and enveloped the lake beneath it in shadow. The sun was piercing through the edges making the rocks near the dock sparkle. The promise of another new day on Flathead Lake.

Day's end brought a whole new light show with clouds backlit by the setting sun. The deep purples and vibrant pink highlights made for a dramatic display with their shadows moving across Wild Horse Island in the distance. After supper, family members gravitated down to the shoreline and we watched until the light faded and the moon appeared in the sky.
Then we made our way up the path, through the pines to the cheery lit windows of the cabin. The sound of gentle waves lapping up onto the rocky shore of a very big lake.

Big Sky & Flathead Lake

After an exhilarating month in California painting and sketching, we spent
the first week of August in Montana for a mini family reunion. We rented a
charming old lake house on Flathead Lake, an incredible glacier-fed lake in the
northwestern part of the state. These blog posts are pages from my sketchbook. 

I love taking a "vacation" from creating finished paintings and enjoy filling pages with sketches, studies and small vignettes. It enables me to explore and observe. To spend time with family and still make time for art! (I have a wonderful family that understands my need to draw and paint where ever we are!)

Our house was part of a 200 acre ranch, The Winkley Ranch. The summer house was built by family members in the 1950s and it was the perfect lake house with a charming screened-in porch for morning coffee or sleepovers (the young cousins bunked out there -- it was a like camping in the trees with the sound of the water lapping onto the shore!).  Just a short walk down the path lined with pine trees and we were down at the water's edge.

The shoreline was lined with rocks to secure the beach area and boat ramp. The lake is huge (the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi!) and the weather can change from calm to stormy with whitewater waves pounding the shoreline! I loved how the colors changed in the water depending on the water's depth or the sunlight touching its surface. I loved focusing on all the subtle colors and range of hues in the rocky ledge.

From the front of our vacation spot we looked out to grassy fields, cherry orchards and further up to the foothills thick with evergreens. The clouds were incredible... it was big sky country (and it is!). I loved watching them move across the expanse of blue. I loved the colors and textures of the pine bark and the range of colors in the grasses of the old ranch land.

Sand & Surf

I filled a whole sketchbook while in California.... I love looking at my sketches and reflecting on all the wonderful encounters and experiences. I thought I would share a few over the next few blog entries.

One Friday evening I picked up Caroline and Lucia (a student from Germany who was also taking the training courses at Monty Robert's ranch) from class and we headed south on Highway 101 for a beach excursion. The ocean is just a thirty minute drive from Solvang. It was Lucia's first time to see the Pacific Ocean and a nice opportunity for new scenery!

It was surprisingly chilly with a strong wind but the girls were determined to get in the water. They ran right in and jumped into the waves. It was a short swim and after bundling up with every available towel and sweatshirt we had brought we sat and enjoyed a picnic dinner. The sea gulls stayed very close... determined to make their case for a morsel or two.

Afterwards, the girls went beach combing and I stayed to paint the panorama in front of me. Large wispy pink clouds rolled in off the ocean and hovered over downtown Santa Barbara in the distance. Huge flocks of pelicans zoomed overhead and swooped down into the ocean. The surf crept up the sand and began to form a channel in front of me that opened to a tidal pool to the left. Kids were having fun watching the water carve away the sand.

Caroline and Lucia returned from their walk and had fun taking picures jumping in the channel.

I finished the painting and then we packed up to go. But not before Lucia stopped to fill an empty soda bottle with sand to bring home to Germany for her little girl. A souvenir from a lovely evening at Refugio Beach.