31 Jul Local Knowledge: Wandering 
and Wonder

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” Western landscapes.

But there’s a new wave of artists in Montana changing the way we look at the beauty and wild majesty of the Northern Rockies. Enter Missoula-based silk painter Christy Lynn Greene.

Silk painter Christy Lynn Greene composes intricate wildlife scenes as seen in her work in progress titled Silent Watch, in which she invites the viewer to discover the dark leafy world of an owl. | COURTESY OF CHRIST Y LYNN GREENE

Greene wants viewers to find their way into the environment on her canvases and invites them to experience the whimsy and wonder of the natural world. It takes time to discover all the life inside her paintings. Her work visually asks us to slow down and explore the details, examining what lives inside the environment. And, she does it all on silk.

Greene is recognized as a Master Silk Painter by Silk Painters International and has exhibited across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Her paintings are singular and unique — layered with the natural pigments left behind by the flora and fauna she finds in nature and then painted to depict the world that lives inside that environment.

For example, she began her recent piece, Into the Woods, intending to paint a bear. “Somewhere along the way, the forest had other ideas,” Greene says. “Wildlife emerged from the foliage. Hidden stories revealed themselves.” What started as a simple portrait of a bruin “became a celebration of an entire ecosystem.”

In her recent eco-print and silk painted work titled Into the Woods, Greene started with the bear at the center and discovered the rest of the forest ecosystem along the way. | COURTESY OF CHRIST Y LYNN GREENE

This point of view is reflected in much of Greene’s work, whether on silk canvas or on wearable art, including scarves and clothing. Greene begins every piece with a walk to gather supplies and develop ideas. She collects leaves, which she’ll later use to make direct imprints on silk. The process seems fairly straightforward, yet it contains elements of unpredictability and surprise. She soaks clean silk in a chemical fixative to make it absorb and adhere to the natural pigment in plants and flowers. After the soaking, Greene arranges damp leaves and plants onto the fabric and covers it with plastic, rolls it tightly around a wooden dowel, and then steams it. When the fabric cools, she unwraps and gently rinses it; what remains is an eco-printed silk. Greene then paints on the print, creating a world atop the design.

“There is something sacred about gathering leaves, wrapping fabric, waiting for steam and time to reveal their surprises,” she says. “The process feels a little like life itself — unpredictable, layered, imperfect, and full of quiet magic.”

Greene begins her process by laying out leaves and foliage she finds in nature to create the backdrop for a future painting. | COURTESY OF CHRIST Y LYNN GREENE

Recognizing magic and wonder in nature is more challenging these days. We live in a world where astronomers can explain how the sun warms the earth and how the moon travels across the sky and creates waves and impacts gravity. Biologists can sequence human DNA, understand why some eyes are blue, and how to cellularly modify plants to defend against insects. Advances in science have, in some ways, stripped away the wonder in our world.

Greene wants us to slow down, to take time, and let nature reveal itself quietly and through experience. She reflects on her own life, on her path from being a young artist to studying forestry and ecology at the University of Montana in Missoula to a 25-year career with Northwest Airlines. She married, raised her children, and then found herself drawn back to art.

“I think I’ve always been an artist,” she says. “It is something that I was born with. My mother was an artist. I come from a family of artists. It was always in our life.”

The Way fi nder
ECO-PRINTED | OLIAGE WITH DYES ON SILK | 36 X 36 INCHES

Greene grew up in the Minnesota countryside. She had horses and was in 4-H. Her mother was an art teacher and always had projects going. Greene excelled in art classes and loved anything to do with the creative process. She also really loved the outdoors. When she was in sixth or seventh grade, her family took a trip to Colorado, and she remembers crying when they left. She didn’t want to leave. The mountains were calling, and she wanted to answer the call with a resounding “Yes!”

So when high school graduation came and it was time to take her next steps, Greene found herself at the University of Montana — in love with the Bob Marshall Wilderness and committed to studying forestry and ecology. And while she took a few art classes, her pursuit of painting dwindled as she launched into a different life.

“Art kind of got lost along the way,” she says. “I took a 25-year hiatus, just because of family and three kids, and working full time. You know, life gets you busy.”

As her children grew, Greene found time to get back into art. It started with watercolors, just for the fun of it. And then an artist canceled an art walk event in downtown Missoula, and Greene was invited to fill in. She had two weeks to fill a gallery with art.

Spirit Guide | ECO-PRINTED FOLIAGE WITH DYES ON SILK | 16 X 20 INCHES

“In two weeks, I produced all these watercolors,” she says. “I was just getting into it again … just finding my old self a little bit there. And I sold all my paintings. I was shocked. … It was a blessing because it really helped me get motivated and more inspired to become more serious and continue on that path.”

A short while later, Greene faced a series of life changes: She was laid off from her 25-year position with the airlines, her marriage ended, and her kids were grown. But out of all those challenges, she says, “I found my art. When everything else just falls, nobody can take that [part of you] away. You just can’t take away that creative need.”

Greene says she threw herself into her art and began learning to silk paint after seeing several silk works by Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey. “I just thought, ‘Oh, my gosh … I love this work,’ and I wanted to learn how to do it,” she says.

Greene found an artist from Billings who was teaching a class in Bozeman, so she drove more than 200 miles from Missoula for a four-hour class and never looked back.

Greene also creates wearable art that celebrates the nature she loves to explore, including this scarf adorned with songbirds that populate the trees near her home in Missoula.

“I just kept painting and growing on my own,” she says. “I learned [the basics] and then just kept experimenting. … That was my therapy; that brought me through. And it still does — through difficult times or good times too.”

This personal need for the process translates through Greene’s work, pulling viewers into a scene and creating space to observe the details. It is grounding for Greene, and she hopes it has a similar effect on the viewer. It becomes a kind of visual therapy to process experiences and appreciate what surrounds us.

“I’ve just always wanted to be around wildlife and animals,” Greene says. “[This art is] a new rediscovery for me, and I’m so excited to be able to relay that as an artist.”

Greene’s newest collection of work is titled Nature Revealed, some of which will be available at the Western Design Conference in Bozeman from August 6–9 and at the Missoula People’s Market through September 26. She is also serving as co-chair at the biennial SPIN Festival Art Exhibition in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in September and will offer a silk painting workshop at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg in October.

Jeanne Allgood Gaisford is a freelance writer based in Clyde Park, Montana. Her commitment to family, love of Montana’s untamed outdoors, and passion for stories about inspiring people and the world we inhabit informs everything she writes. Her work often appears in the pages of Edible Bozeman and occasionally on Instagram; @jeannjeannie.