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Started messing around with a blog, so check it out if you like. Welcome to my painting website. I live and work in Missoula, Montana, which is a good place to be, especially if you enjoy painting plein air--that is, painting outside, on location (for you non-painters). For me plein air is the most satisfying way to paint. It is in a way the poetry of painting, where everything inessential must be stripped away and more beauty is contained in fewer strokes of the brush, each one carefully chosen or blessed by luck. A plein air work is often small and completed quickly, and can be taken in a glance. Yet if it is well done it continues to reveal more with every encounter, and though small contains great depth. That said, I'm no purist--sometimes a photo cries out to be painted, and a large detailed landscape can be like a good novel, complicated and grand. But still, that record of the one or two hours in intense and intimate relation with light, color, and place can be profoundly moving, like a good live recording, or a beautiful memory. Of course, as with any outdoor activity, wipeouts happen. While not often physically bruised, the ego and psyche can take a beating, and the mosquitoes, horseflies, burning sun and frigid wind all get their shots. The light changes in an instant, the painting takes a wrong turn, disaster, dismay and defeat. Hopefully those mistakes are weeded out, but hey, you be the judge. Have a look around, enjoy yourself, and drop a line if you want to buy a painting, or go painting, or just say hi. Thanks for visiting. Ben Haggett |