KALISPELL’S PAINT, METAL, AND MUD GALLERY features new artist, Raette Meredith
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| 'Off the Hidden Lake Trail' by Raette Meredith |
Raette Meredith’s “Glacier Park Series” exhibit opens on September 6th, during the First Friday events in downtown Kalispell. Raette will be at the gallery that evening for an artist’s reception from 5:30 PM until 8:00 PM.
Raette will be doing a demonstration painting between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Paint, Metal and Mud, an artist cooperative located in Kalispell features 12 artists’ work. Raette Meredith is the most recent addition to the gallery, where she exhibits vibrant palette knife oil paintings.
In March of 2013 Raette, her husband Robert, three children: Tristan, Alexis and Raechel, three dogs, cat and two fish returned to her husband’s home state of Montana. The open spaces and numerous trails open for exploration that Montana offers inspires Raette more than ever to connect with nature the best way she knows how, by painting.
“I first found satisfaction with creating art when I was a young child. I don’t remember any time in my life when I wasn’t drawing or building something. As an adult, I find painting with oils and a palette knife is the most challenging, and has held my attention longer than any other medium. When painting, time stops, I am completely focused on the subject I am painting. This focus keeps me grounded. Painting is not an option for me, it is something that I simply must do to feel complete."
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| 'Avalanche Gorge' by Raette Meredith |
"I try to capture the impermanence in nature in my paintings, moving my knife across the canvas in the same manner the subject was formed. As I work through the painting, colors begin to vividly emerge and my eyes become more sensitive to the changes of color in light and shadow. Upon completion of a painting I feel refreshed as if given a new day. It is my hope that the viewer also feels nature’s impermanence, inspiration and refreshment when looking on these paintings."
"Inspiration is everywhere here, no matter which way you look, there is so much to paint and I have never felt more alive as an artist. I finally feel like I have found my home.”
Raette’s most recent series of paintings feature popular views from spectacular Glacier National Park and Going to the Sun Road. The paintings are done with a palette knife and oil paint, are thick with texture, movement and color. She paints both on location and in her home studio. When not painting she enjoys hiking and thinking about the next painting she will be working on.
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Raette's artist's reception on September 6, 2013, will be from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the gallery, located at 16 First Street, Kalispell. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
And Happy New Guest Artist for the month of January! 
Don't have room for a painting? Then stock up on Raette's beautiful cards. Or if you hurry in you might be able to snag one of the remaining hand painted bear bells from when you're out enjoying the hiking trails in our gorgeous Montana landscape.
