Downtown Perspective-- Meet the Artisit

It was around the middle of August 2015 when I began this project. I had just recently began showing work at Wild Eye Artistry and had already painted a few of the local businesses and historical homes in Kalispell's East Side neighborhood. Rick, owner of Wild Eye Artistry, thought it might be a good idea to paint a few street scenes outside the gallery to engage people and direct them toward my work at the gallery. After a few of these initial paintings were complete, Rick suggested that I paint all of them and we could have a show. I figured I'd need about two months to complete the project. So with the deadline of October 8^th, I was off to the races. Little did I know that there would be over 50 paintings in the show and I would be putting the finishing touches on the final painting the morning of the 8^th.


 

Why Kalispell you may ask. I find the downtown historical district to be particularly charming. My wife and I moved here last November and were immediately drawn to the tree lined side streets, old brick facades, colorful awnings, decorative light posts, and vibrant businesses. There is so much to take in which makes it the perfect subject for a project such as this. With many cities not supporting their downtowns, it is refreshing to see that the local community has so much love for theirs. It is my hope that this project can draw attention to downtown, and get people to bring more of their business there. If we do not support places such as this, Kalsipell will wind up looking like any town USA.

I hope you enjoy the collection of paintings that I have completed. They represent roughly well over 150 hours of work. That amounts to one week solid of time spent on Main Street. In this manner, all but two paintings were completed. I would set up my french easel and paint in plein air and would typically complete a work in a single session. 'Main Street Dusk' and 'Paul' were completed in the studio.

I met so many wonderful people while painting and working on the project. I was quite an experience which I will never forget. Thank you to all that have made Kalispell such a place that needed to be captured on canvas.

---Jeff Troupe