Last summer I painted in a Glacier Park painting event. While driving around, my hubby & I passed this picturesque barn and canola field a couple of times before it called me back to paint. As I was painting on the side of the busy highway, I noticed a guy on a 4 wheeler leave the farm below and head up towards me. As he approached I assumed it was the owner to chase me off. Not everyone is in love with painters painting their property. Instead, he introduced himself and invited me to come paint where ever and whatever I wanted, extending the invite to any other painters I knew. How great is that, yes please!
After I mostly completed the barn, we headed down to see what scenic treasures awaited. Behind the tall pine trees in front of the barn was a large natural spring. It’s deep emerald green color was too much to resist and so I painted that too ("Emerald Spring"). Doug, the manager, let us kick around for the afternoon and I totally loved the invite to hang out and paint his farm.
Rain ended my other painting before I was done so Doug asked if we’d like to go see a couple America’s Cup sailboats being put into the lake up at ‘the lodge’. He made a quick phone call and then told us ok, good to go, when you get there just tell them Doug sent you.
We’re not from the area so we were completely unaware what ‘the lodge’ was about, a high end guest ranch on the shores of Flathead Lake. We drove into the immaculate grounds and were immediately asked what we needed. “Doug sent us”, and the waters parted down to the dock where the boats were being launched. We mused at Doug’s connections and watched the boat launching for awhile before heading out for more painting. It wasn’t until much later that we discovered Doug was the owner of Flathead Lake Lodge. Well played, Doug.
The red barn painting has been waiting patiently since then for me to finish the tiny windows on the barn, along with a few other details. In the spirit of keeping it ‘plein air’ I resisted taking it any further. Thank you for the opportunity, Doug!
