The Northern Rockies remain a treasure trove for artistic talent, with many new and emerging artists hitting their stride. Here are a few artists catching our attention. Amanda Markel Sculptor Amanda Markel takes the fluidity of paint and translates it to bronze. Through the idea......
Growing up in Billings, Meghan Spielman and her sister were encouraged to explore every kind of art. They took classes at the Yellowstone Art Museum, studied watercolor painting during the summers, and were rarely told there was a right or wrong way to create. Today,......
Montana artist Mike Barlow is enamored with his subject matter. Like many artists, Barlow can be shy when talking about aesthetics. Serious artists, after all, are in the business of making art and are happy to leave judgment regarding its merits to philosophers. But when......
For Brooke Wetzel, experiences in the great outdoors inform her creativity. “We spent a lot of time outside and on the rivers,” she says of her childhood. “It’s where my love of nature came from. I’m a mountain girl. I’ve spent my life in the......
For many viewers, the first thing that emerges when observing a Kenneth Yarus painting isn’t the sheer scale of the mountains, the glint of glacial water, or the depth of the alpine sky. It’s how the piece makes a viewer feel — an emotional resonance.......
In a scene pulsing with tense energy, two bison bulls, each weighing as much as a ton, battle for primacy. Amid the clouds of dust they’re kicking up, one of them launches himself from the ground, hindquarters powerfully pushing, forelegs airborne, head and horns lowered.......
It’s a Saturday afternoon in Red Lodge, Montana, and I’m on my fourth cup of coffee as I take my seat in a small room above Black Canyon Bistro. Three songwriters — Montana’s Lena Rich and Tom Catmull, along with Nashville’s Tai Shan — tune......
If you believe, as Picasso did, that “the purpose of art is to wash the dust of daily life off our souls,” or, like Kurt Vonnegut, that art is “a very human way of making life more bearable,” or, as Mary Oliver wrote, that “art......
For the last century, a quintessential Montana artist might have been known for creating traditional images of the wide-open, beautiful vistas and rugged terrain that define the region. Walk into an area gallery, and you’re likely to find oil paintings and watercolors of “big picture”......
In September 1892, artist Henry Herman “H.H.” Cross set up a studio at Marcus Daly’s Montana Hotel in Anaconda. There, Cross spent six months creating paintings of Daly’s racehorses, and on January 16, 1893, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the hotel was “the Mecca......
Crow Fair, known as the Tipi Capital of the World, is an unmatched cultural gathering in Crow Agency, Montana. The sheer volume of attendees speaks to the event’s popularity and is a testament to the resilience of the Crow (Apsáalooke) people. This year marks the......
Architecture Miller Roodell Architects Construction Benchmark Group Interior Design Design Associates Landscape Architecture Field Studio Landscape Architects When a couple asked Miller Roodell Architects and Design Associates to compose a final estate for gathering their multi-generational family, they had more than just the architecture in......
They never knew their locomotive engine had hit a bear that night. Up in the cab, amid all the engine noise and random conversation, Slug and Dillon droned down the rails, in the dark, westbound on Burlington Northern freight number 766. They didn’t feel so......
Four apple trees, boughs planed, hover shoulder-height above the ground, trunks twisted, coiled like dancers at the moment of a pivot. If these trees were to move, make their turns, reread the grooves creasing their bark, their red fruit would fly off into the dark......
Life’s splendor is all around, from the luminous quality of light during a Rocky Mountain sunset, to the magnificent stance of a grizzly bear lumbering along a hillside, to the transcending moment of triumph when a wild trout hooks onto a fly. These are the......
After seven years of dedicated work and fundraising, Rudy Autio [1926–2007] is now remembered through a newly remade steel version of his 1966 sculpture known as Signal. The new piece stands at the entrance of the University of Montana’s Miller Hall in Missoula, where Autio,......
Interior designer William Peace has left his mark on homes across the West. With a soulful and timeless approach, he creates spaces that tell a story and reflect a connection back to the land. The founder and principal of Peace Design based in Bozeman and......
Studio Cohab, a design firm in Bozeman, focuses on creating innovative, sustainable spaces, including cohousing developments designed to encourage connection and community living. Their work is guided by the belief that housing plays a vital role in people’s well-being, and that thoughtful design can create......
Under a bluebird sky in early spring, Jim Dolan stands amid a grove of bright red “phone booths” outside his Belgrade, Montana sculpture studio. Over the coming months, he’s planting them throughout the state beside quiet country roads, in wheat fields, in places where they......
Yellowstone National Park Written by Max Humphrey, with photography by Aaron Kraft Yellowstone National Park by Max Humphrey is a reimagined take on a travel guide for one of America’s most recognizable national parks. In this new release, Humphrey, an interior designer and author of......
Museums, galleries, and curated art events celebrating the artists of the Northern Rockies offer an intimate glimpse at life in the American West. Here are some upcoming calendar highlights: Ongoing Through August 23 Bison-tennial: From Colonization to Rematriation National Museum of Wildlife Art | Jackson,......
“I hardly know myself / and this has always been true,” says the speaker in the poem “Evening Song.” Former Montana Poet Laureate Tami Haaland’s new collection of poetry, If I Had Said Beauty (Lost Horse Press, $20), is a deep and thoughtful investigation into......
June in Montana is billowing clouds swelling across a sky that’s met by the spine of the mountains and a bed of verdant greens. The varied hues of plants harmoniously blend into a rich landscape of forests and meadows, mountains and plains. Defined by the......
Winding up a sage-covered hill just outside of Jackson, Wyoming, the National Museum of Wildlife Art offers a profound way to connect with art and the wildlife that inspires it. Spread out over a ¾-mile trail, 42 sculptures sit on the hill overlooking the National......
The boat launch on the northwest corner of Flathead Lake near Somers, Montana is a relatively quiet place. It’s quieter yet beneath a ceiling of heavy clouds and the kind of stillness that is to be expected once the throngs of lake lovers have turned......
Editor’s Note: Professor Daniel G. Block wrote his wilderness memoir at the end of his life in the late 2010s, and the unpublished manuscript was found in a box nearly a decade later by his grandson, Zach Block. Zach worked with a Montana historian and......
Montana Backcountry Discovery Route The Montana Backcountry Discovery Route documentary highlights the completion of the nonprofit Backcountry Discovery Routes’ (BDR) 23rd off-highway motorcycle route, which is the final portion of the Western BDR system, showcasing the immense beauty of Montana. Canvassing nearly 900 trail miles......
Kat Porco is reminiscent. She describes a warm June evening, the first summer after she and her husband, Mike, opened One Legged Magpie, an upscale restaurant and bar in downtown Red Lodge, Montana. Upstairs, a group of women were rehearsing for the town’s first drag......
Hairpin turns, pristine alpine lakes, abundant wildflowers, and endless views of the rugged Montana and Wyoming wilderness — these are some of the defining features of the Beartooth Highway, a 68-mile stretch of enchanted tarmac that transports travelers into another world. Jaw-dropping awe is all......
Architecture | Miller Roodell Architects Construction | Bolton Custom Homes Interior Design | Avantgarden Landscape Architecture | Field Studio Here’s one sign that a construction project has gone well: when, after the dust has settled, each of the principals involved sings the praises of the next. In......
From a distance, the grassy hills just north of Missoula look like disheveled blankets. Known locally as the North Hills, this stretch of land separates the ever-growing university town from the mountains of the Rattlesnake Wilderness. Donna L. Erickson grew up in the North Hills,......
Editor’s Note: We all have our secret spots — those undiscovered special places that offer a full and intimate experience. And as more and more recreationists venture into the outdoors, some places inevitably feel the pressure. While crowds risk changing the character of a place,......
Living on the edge of Glacier National Park might seem like a dream. For artist Michael Booth, it’s the reality of a lifetime. The move brought Booth closer to nature, an internal calling that’s led him to some of his most iconic paintings. Having now......
Montanans pride themselves on protecting natural wonders, but very few have considered protecting the dark. The dark, after all, scares us. Not the darkness of a room, perhaps, or even a house. But the dark street, the dark wood, and most certainly the dark that......
During a time of hardship, perhaps the lowest point in 20th century Montana history, here was a chance for celebration. It was 1926. Drought had shriveled the state’s agriculture. Banks had failed. Homesteaders had fled. Bankruptcy rates were the highest in the nation. Most roads......
Shannon Waters was living in New York City, training and eventually cheffing in some of the finest restaurants in the world. She was hungry to do everything — from making “perfect pasta and beautiful bread” to butchering pigs, chickens, and goats — and often spent......
Sometimes when you’re painting outdoors, wild animals wander into your field of view. That’s what Andy Taylor has learned as he paints en plein air in locations along the Snake River or in Grand Teton National Park. He’s had moose saunter into the scene and......
It took some time to learn this lesson, but as a writer-photographer team, Audrey Hall and I have embraced the idea that it’s important to leave space — in your mind, in your schedule — because that’s when the magic happens. This particular magic took......
The first of a lifetime of Yellowstone River agates was dropped, almost literally, at the feet of young Tom Harmon. When his elementary school playground in Sidney, Montana was graveled, Harmon and his classmates spent recess scrounging for agates in the crushed rock. Over lunch,......
With characters the likes of Rick O’Shay, Hipshot Percussion, and Deuces Wild, hailing from the imaginary town of Conniption, cartoonist Myron Stanford “Stan” Lynde’s Western-themed comic strips appealed to newspaper readers across the country. Published for 25 years beginning in the 1950s, these comics introduced......
Deep in the oral history archive of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), a 1977 recording captured the words of Pend d’Oreille elder Mitch Smallsalmon. He recalled the abundance of the landscape that now encompasses western Montana, and the good fortune of the Salish......
It leans a little, tilting north toward the Bridger Range, its cracked, weathered boards wearing their best silver patina. In its uselessness, the west wind refrains from taking it down, only teases the old barn with frequent gusts that rattle loose the rusted tin roof,......
A day shy of the summer solstice, Travis Taylor launches our skiff into the spring-fed pond on Jemas Ranch. It is already 7:30 p.m. But this time of year, the days are so long you can fish a hatch up until 9:30 p.m. and still......
A foundational focus at Montana State University (MSU), the language of sustainability inspired architecture master’s student Elena Silverman to submit a project that earned her an international award. Last fall, shortly after she discarded her model into a recycling bin at MSU’s Cheever Hall, she......
Creating a home is a deeply personal journey, one that reflects the individuality and lifestyle of each unique person who will dwell within it. The structure becomes a facilitator of memories that come to define a life. And for those who abide in the Northern......
With more than 50 years of combined experience, Domaine Interiors in Bozeman provides inspired solutions for effortless living. Through their timeless approach to interior vernaculars and deep respect for craftsmanship, Domaine curates spaces that feel both elevated and livable. Helming collaborative relationships with clients, contractors,......
This Must Be the Place: Homes with Atmosphere Written by Chloe Redmond Warner, Foreword by Heidi Caillier Designer Chloe Redmond Warner — originally from Missoula and founder of Redmond Aldrich Design — makes her literary debut with This Must Be the Place: Homes with Atmosphere,......
Whether you’re contemplating a remodel, considering a new build in the Rocky Mountain West, or searching for particular decor, art and home shows offer essential inspiration, advice, and products from some of the best regional artisans and designers, with wares specifically suited to the ethos......
Adirondack Chair by ORCA Studio ORCA Studio’s take on the Adirondack is a modern twist on a classic. Crafted with aromatic cedar, the chair is simple yet substantial, featuring thick planks and metal framing. Its enduring construction means it will withstand the weather of the......
Just as the Gallatin Range will forever define the landscape in and around Bozeman, so, too, do the houses designed by Locati Architects that occupy sites throughout the Gallatin Valley. The stone, steel, timber, and glass that the firm regularly employs in their residences reflect......