Hockaday showcases Glacier's women artists

Last summer, artist Carole Cooke hiked up the Iceberg Lake Trail in Glacier National Park to capture the scene. She was a bit nervous, to put it mildly. There were numerous signs posted warning of grizzly bears, and she was hiking alone with a can of bear spray that expired 10 years ago.

“I was stopping strangers, asking them, ‘Do you mind if I hike with you?’ But then I’d stop to take a photograph and they’d be gone,” she said.

Cooke made it to the lake, but the scene wasn’t exactly what she expected.

“There was like, a convention of 40 to 50 people up there,” she said.

Even so, it made for a good painting, and she was able to cool off her feet in the lake’s icy waters.

Cooke, along with fellow women artists Kathryn Stats, Rachel Warner and Linda Tippetts, are featured in an upcoming show at the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell called “A Timeless Legacy — Women Artists of Glacier National Park.”

The show includes the four contemporary artists along with deceased women artists Nellie Knopf, Leah Dewey Lebo, Kathryn Leighton, Elizabeth Lochrie, Lucille Van Slyck, Elsa Jemne and Merle Olson.

Women played an important role in the history of art in Glacier Park, and yet many are largely forgotten, overshadowed by their male counterparts. Many early male artists in the Park were paid to paint Glacier’s grand vistas, while the women, with no less talent or drive, paid their own way.

The idea for the exhibit saw its genesis two years ago.

“The idea for an exhibition about women who paint Glacier came over a glass of wine during a cocktail party in 2013,” said Tabby Ivy, a past Hockaday Museum of Art board member and one of the show’s curators. “Louise Bone, from Jacksonville, Illinois, was visiting and mentioned an artist, Nellie Knopf, whose work she collected. She related how Nellie traveled extensively to the West to paint. In 1925, Knopf made a trip from Jacksonville, where she was head of the Art Department at MacMurray College, to Montana to paint in Glacier National Park.”

Ivy, Hockaday director Liz Moss and art collector and historian Denny Kellogg went to work rounding up paintings.

Then last summer, Cooke, Warner, Stats and Tippetts spent time together painting Glacier Park vistas and getting to know each other and the importance of women in Glacier’s art history in a trip arranged by the museum.

For Tippetts, the show will give neglected women artists of the past the recognition they deserve. Warner had similar sentiments.

“We didn’t get into this to get all feminist, but sooner or later you can’t ignore the undertow,” she said.

Warner lives in Columbia Falls, Tippetts in Augusta not far from the ranch she grew up on, Cooke in Colorado and Stats in California. Their time together last summer was invaluable, they said.

“Getting to know them was a life-changing experience,” Stats said.

The women are still working on their paintings for the show.

“You paint until they go out the door,” Stats said.

Each woman will show a half-dozen or more paintings, along with a dozen of the historic paintings from late artists.

Warner said one of her pieces is 7 feet wide. They haven’t seen each other’s work, so they’re looking forward to the opening. The project also features a corresponding book and a film, shot by Ed Gillenwater of Bigfork. The show will open May 28 and run through July 18. A trailer of Gillenwater’s film can be seen online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6UsPfDUKjc.

Last summer, artist Carole Cooke hiked up the Iceberg Lake Trail in Glacier National Park to capture the scene. She was a bit nervous, to put it mildly. There were numerous signs posted warning of grizzly bears, and she was hiking alone with a can of bear spray that expired 10 years ago.

“I was stopping strangers, asking them, ‘Do you mind if I hike with you?’ But then I’d stop to take a photograph and they’d be gone,” she said.

Cooke made it to the lake, but the scene wasn’t exactly what she expected.

“There was like, a convention of 40 to 50 people up there,” she said.

Even so, it made for a good painting, and she was able to cool off her feet in the lake’s icy waters.

Cooke, along with fellow women artists Kathryn Stats, Rachel Warner and Linda Tippetts, are featured in an upcoming show at the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell called “A Timeless Legacy — Women Artists of Glacier National Park.”

The show includes the four contemporary artists along with deceased women artists Nellie Knopf, Leah Dewey Lebo, Kathryn Leighton, Elizabeth Lochrie, Lucille Van Slyck, Elsa Jemne and Merle Olson.

Women played an important role in the history of art in Glacier Park, and yet many are largely forgotten, overshadowed by their male counterparts. Many early male artists in the Park were paid to paint Glacier’s grand vistas, while the women, with no less talent or drive, paid their own way.

The idea for the exhibit saw its genesis two years ago.

“The idea for an exhibition about women who paint Glacier came over a glass of wine during a cocktail party in 2013,” said Tabby Ivy, a past Hockaday Museum of Art board member and one of the show’s curators. “Louise Bone, from Jacksonville, Illinois, was visiting and mentioned an artist, Nellie Knopf, whose work she collected. She related how Nellie traveled extensively to the West to paint. In 1925, Knopf made a trip from Jacksonville, where she was head of the Art Department at MacMurray College, to Montana to paint in Glacier National Park.”

Ivy, Hockaday director Liz Moss and art collector and historian Denny Kellogg went to work rounding up paintings.

Then last summer, Cooke, Warner, Stats and Tippetts spent time together painting Glacier Park vistas and getting to know each other and the importance of women in Glacier’s art history in a trip arranged by the museum.

For Tippetts, the show will give neglected women artists of the past the recognition they deserve. Warner had similar sentiments.

“We didn’t get into this to get all feminist, but sooner or later you can’t ignore the undertow,” she said.

Warner lives in Columbia Falls, Tippetts in Augusta not far from the ranch she grew up on, Cooke in Colorado and Stats in California. Their time together last summer was invaluable, they said.

“Getting to know them was a life-changing experience,” Stats said.

The women are still working on their paintings for the show.

“You paint until they go out the door,” Stats said.

Each woman will show a half-dozen or more paintings, along with a dozen of the historic paintings from late artists.

Warner said one of her pieces is 7 feet wide. They haven’t seen each other’s work, so they’re looking forward to the opening. The project also features a corresponding book and a film, shot by Ed Gillenwater of Bigfork. The show will open May 28 and run through July 18. A trailer of Gillenwater’s film can be seen online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6UsPfDUKjc.