Montana Prairie Church

13.5 X 20 inches, Watercolor on Arches 300# paper

$410.00.  The price includes shipping

Email finelinegallerymail@gmail.com.  I do take payments.

Certified check or money order please.

The church in the painting was based on a photograph taken in 1974 in the Shields Valley of western Montana.  The church was built by local farmers the late 19th or early 20th century on a high hill several miles south of the town of Ringling, between the Big Belt Mountains and the Crazy Mountains. My father and I frequently drove past the church when I was young, on trips between Bozeman, Montana and Harlowton, Montana. The church stood abandoned and in decay for many years, but has recently been restored by Shields Valley residents.

The prairie near Ringling is what I call "high prairie" -- sagebrush-dotted rolling hills, interspersed with low spots, or gulches, that hold snow melt and sustain small marshes. My depiction of the church compresses the church on its high hill with the marshland found nearby in order to give the viewer a sense of the diversity of the landscape.