31 Jul Atmospheric Sensibility

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 wilderness, and that translates into my paintings.”

Born in Montana and raised partly in the mountain town of McCall, Idaho, Wetzel credits her upbringing for the inspiration that fuels her work — not only her time in the outdoors, but her family’s artistic talent as well. “I grew up watching my dad create art, and it was always landscapes. He loved to paint ocean scenes,” she recalls. And though he pursued it as a hobby, Wetzel had other relatives who made art a career.

It Will Be Called Montana | OIL ON CANVAS | 28 X 22 INCHES

“My great-uncles worked as illustrators for Walt Disney, and they’d illustrate birthday cards and Christmas cards,” she says. “I loved it. It always had my attention, ever since I was young.”

Despite her interest in and access to art — and even though she had a fondness for making it as well — Wetzel didn’t recognize her own talents until she was nearly out of high school. She recalls the fortuitous meeting with a school counselor that ultimately led Wetzel to realize her potential.

Having never taken an art class in school, “I was called into the counselor’s office and told if I didn’t have a fine art credit, I wouldn’t graduate.” She was loath to consider chorus or band, so she resigned to enroll in Art 101 — and was convinced before even starting that she was destined to fail the class. Instead, the opposite happened.

To Fish Is To Hope | OIL ON CANVAS | 40 X 30 INCHES

“I remember my very first assignment: It was a grayscale. We had to take white and black paint and do a grayscale on a little piece of paper,” she recalls. “Students were taking their work up to the teacher, and he would rip them up and throw them in the trash. He was really very hard, which at the time was a little scary. Well, I did the best I could, and I took mine up to him, and he didn’t say a word to me. He pinned it up on the board behind him and said, ‘Class, this is what I want it to look like.’”

It was Wetzel’s first inkling that she had natural ability. Soon after, her teacher informed her that she was no longer constrained by the regular class curriculum — she was free to pursue art as an independent study and create her own path.

Even though she had discovered her talent and love of painting, Wetzel didn’t immediately consider it as a profession. In college, she explored the medical field before ultimately majoring in business. And while she couldn’t have known it at the time, her degree provided the acumen necessary to become a successful artist.

Brooke Wetzel credits her upbringing in rural Montana and Idaho, along with her Osage heritage, for the enduring love of nature that informs all of her art. | LIZZY HUMPPREY FILM

It wasn’t until after she’d given birth to her first child that Wetzel returned to art. “I was at home and wanted something to do, so I started painting again and discovered that was really my life passion,” she says.

Rather than return to school for art, she pursued it on her own with the occasional guidance of others. “I’m mostly self-taught,” she says. “I spent a couple of years mentoring with Gary Lynn Roberts, and then just developing friendships and mentors along the way. But mostly, it’s just hundreds of failed paintings in my studio.” Though she does acknowledge that not everyone would consider them failures. “I throw them in the burn pile, and later find that my husband has pulled them from the burn pile and hidden them from me in the garage.”

Wetzel’s humility and pursuit of perfection have earned her plenty of fans over the years, not least of which are the galleries that represent her. One such example is Beartooth Gallery in Red Lodge, where Steve Galloway has worked with Wetzel for more than a decade.

Thex R ide at Dawn | OIL ON CANVAS | 36 X 48 INCHES

“She’s very talented, and she’s got a great personality,” says Galloway. “From my end in the gallery business, being able to work with her has been such a pleasure. She’s been a big hit from the beginning, and it’s very clear that she’s definitely in the right profession.”

Galloway has witnessed Wetzel’s exciting arrival on the Western art scene and her ever-increasing popularity in collectors’ circles.

“I first met Brooke at the C.M. Russell show and sale that happens every March. That year, I noticed this room next to ours, and there was this young lady moving her work in and setting up her display. I peeked in there and said, ‘Oh, wow! This is some really good work here.’” Later in the week, Galloway wanted to approach Wetzel about representing her, but “it was like you had to get in line. She had just made such an impression on everyone.” It wasn’t until well after the show had wrapped up that the two were able to chat and launch the relationship that endures to this day.

Tender and Tough | OIL ON CANVAS | 24 X 36 INCHES

Looking at her work, it’s easy to see why Wetzel made such a splash. Her paintings are captivating in a quiet, enchanting way. While the scenes they depict are standard fare for Western art — horses, mountains, fly fishing — her approach renders them with a gentle, atmospheric quality that sets them apart. Rather than depict the landscape as something magnificent to behold from a distance, she invites the viewer to experience the places and scenes she paints more intimately.

“I like to make my subject secondary, so it becomes really more about a feeling,” she says. “Rather than just telling a story or creating a passive experience, I’d rather create an active, resonant one that moves the viewer from observing to feeling. I think a good painting should draw out something intangible.”

Montana Love Story | OIL ON CANVAS | (DIPTYCH) 36 X 24 INCHES EACH

And, indeed, hers do. For anyone who has spent time out in the wild places of the West, Wetzel’s work will strike a chord because she precisely captures the way those subtle, unforgettable moments feel: The transcendence of mist on the river at dawn, the relief provided by a campfire at the end of a cold, rainy day. The result is visceral and nebulous, like a memory.

Fire and Faith | OIL ON CANVAS | 40 X 30 INCHES

There’s no question that Wetzel’s ability to evoke a feeling in the viewer comes at least partly from her skill with light, a study that has been foundational to her work. “I’ve always just been drawn to light,” she says. “Being out in the wilderness, spending my life out on the water — boating, hiking — I’ve always studied the elements. I love the sunrise, the sunset. Who doesn’t, really? But I’ll sleep on the middle of the lake just to catch the sunrise and all of the fleeting moments that you only see when most of the world is asleep.”

Nature’s Awakening | OIL ON CANVAS | 40 X 30 INCHES

It’s her ability to capture those fleeting moments — and render them with such sensitivity — that separates her work from that of so many other Western artists. “I consider my paintings primarily landscapes,” she says. “But it’s funny — I like the solitude of the landscape, but the inspiration typically comes during the process of pursuing the landscape,” whether that’s on the river or in the mountains, on horseback or mid-stream in waders. What she’s after isn’t just the place itself, but the effect the place can have on us if we let it.

Melissa Mylchreest is a freelance writer and artist based in western Montana. When she’s not at her desk or in the studio, she can be found enjoying the state’s public lands and rivers with her two- and four-legged friends and family.