Artist's corner: Brett Thuma
Age: 51
City: Bigfork
Medium of choice: Alkyd oil paints, photography, pencil and charcoal drawings
Gallery in Bigfork where people can find your work: Brett Thuma Gallery, 459 Electric Avenue, Ste. D. (406) 837-4604.
Q: How did you get started?
A: All kids are artists if you give them materials … Like lots of kids I was drawing either with pencils or crayons or whatever I had available. My dad was quite an outdoorsman and was alway hunting or fishing … as I got a little older, I would draw stuff that he would catch or shoot — fish or pheasants or ducks.
Q: What has inspired you lately?
A: I definitely love the fall color time of year, that’s very inspirational. Obviously Northwest Montana is very inspirational for me. I find lots of good stuff right around Bigfork — there’s lots of scenes within 5 miles of Bigfork that are amazing.
Q: What are you most proud of?
A: It’s a wolf painting that I did — it’s laying down on a big boulder in a snowy forest. I got the idea originally because … there was a woman around here that had captive wolves and I was spending time with the wolves. The wolf had been sleeping and then some of the chickadees and ravens woke the wolf up. It’s still in the sleepy, relaxed pose but it’s eyes and ears perked up. It’s still very relaxed but alert at the same time. It’s kind of an interesting design that way … Every painting has its own set of challenges to try to deal with and solve. It’s challenging, but it also keeps things interesting.
Q: Why Bigfork as your home base?
A: I’m very into nature and wildlife and that kind of thing — the biodiversity of this area was a key draw, in addition to the landscape. There’s only a few places left in the lower 48 states that have the level of biodiversity. … I have a long history of coming down here. My grandfather used to come here to fish before I was ever born. … I knew I was going to live in Montana somewhere, but I just kept gravitating toward this area. This is definitely the last best place to me.
Q: What is your next big project or focus?
A: It’s hard to pick just one, but I’m interested in capturing some of the stuff over on the east side on the Blackfeet reservation looking into Glacier with the bison. That’s been developing for over 10 years now — I’ve been going to this certain sport over there. I love that landscape there and the history and there’s more and more interest in having some free ranging bison in some parts of Montana at some point.
Q: What drew you to alkyd oils?
A: I painted in acrylics for years and there was a number of paintings that were challenging — acrylic is really good for certain things, but what it’s not good for is soft blending because it dries so fast. … My girlfriend at the time heard me complaining about it around the time I heard about these alkyd oils. That Christmas, my girlfriend surprised me with a whole set of these alkyd oils oils so I thought I’d give it a try. I really liked having more blending time — I thought, well geez why didn’t I switch to this sooner?