Getting out there

LaMarche Creek, Wisdom, Montana. Oil on canvas, 6x6. Sold

A newfound friend, Geri Comicz, whom I met through this very blog, read yesterday's entry and sent me some ideas of other sites I should try. (By the way, Geri is a wonderful painter. See her lovely, haunting portraits, bird paintings and still-lifes at www.gmcomicz.blogspot.com/).

One of the sites she mentioned, Daily Painters (www.dailypainters.com) suggests that a painter asking to be juried into the site have several months' worth of paintings on his or her blog. While I already do have several months' worth, it occurred to me that some of you out there, or some who might visit in the future, might not know about my trip to Montana and the scores of paintings I made this summer. Also, I think, the jury at Daily Painters would want to see this work.

So here's my story: I quit my job in June, and drove to Wisdom, Montana. Peter and I had stumbled across Wisdom when we lived in Idaho, and went fishing at Kelly Creek, deep in the wilderness. We drove out a dirt road into Montana, and found ourselves in Wisdom.

Wisdom itself - just on the other side of Chief Joseph Pass on the Continental Divide - is a small, dusty town of friendly people, good restaurants and nonexistent cell-phone service. It stands on a high, flat grassland plain, ringed by hills and then, behind them, mountains. Through all this, the Big Hole River rambles, curving and curling across the plains, and leaving them shockingly luxuriant in a land that is so typically arid.

I had long remembered Wisdom as a beautiful, natural jewel. So, faced with an adventure needing a destination, I chose Wisdom. I drove out quickly, and then took my time driving home. Day by day, I painted, all in plein-air, in the throbbing, bug-infested heat of July, standing beside my car at the edges of roads, on farmers' field tracks, in truck stops and rest stops and strangers' driveways - wherever my sight and imagination took me.

For those of you who haven't seen my Wisdom Trip paintings, take a look. There are thumbnails here: http://jacobson-arts.com/Wisdom_trip_thumbnails.html - and from them, you can click through to see the paintings in a larger scale.

I kept an erratic blog on the way. It's erratic because I was hampered by my lack of knowledge and the uneven Internet connections of the hotels where I stayed. Still, it's a fun tour through a part of the country that's alien to many of us. You can find the blog here: http://jacobson-arts.com/Blog/Blog.html

Some of the Wisdom trip paintings have sold. I will be posting Sold notices soon - in the meantime, if you're interested in buying one (or more than one!) let me know. Since I'm signed up with paypal, I can now accept that, and all sorts of credit cards. I have yet to figure out how this works, but I will!

To see more of my work - and Peter's - go to jacobson-arts.com.

And as always, thank you for reading.