Horses have played many roles in western culture, ranging from survival necessities to companions in the loneliness of wide-open spaces. For Kalispell artist Karen Young, these iconic animals have provided a lifetime of artistic inspiration.
Young’s first solo show, “Karen Young: Recent Works,” opened Sept. 2 at the Bigfork Museum of Art and History. The show runs until Sept. 24. Admission is free at the museum.
Most of Young’s works are oil paintings of classic western motifs, focusing largely on the role of horses and the bond they have with their human counterparts.
Her pieces have proven to be popular in the Flathead; Young won several People’s Choice awards at previous shows at the Bigfork Museum of Art and History and the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell.
During an interview last week, Young said she has been sketching and drawing most her life. When she moved to Montana from Texas in 1992, Young began exploring painting more seriously. She took workshops, read up on technique and studied the local art scene.
“I just kind of winged it from there,” she said.
Young’s life in the Lone Star State provides some of the inspiration for her works, though her paintings also evoke familiar scenes of the pervasive equine culture in Big Sky Country.
“When I lived in Texas, my parents owned a ranch and we had cows and horses,” Young said. “I was just pretty much brought up in that kind of environment.”
When her family relocated to Kalispell, her daughter’s disability prompted the purchase of a horse, Young said, and her daughter got involved with the Special Olympics.
That horse, Skeeter, is featured in several of Young’s paintings and was the artist’s initial muse. Young’s other horses also star in her paintings, including her black-and-white, four-legged friend, Marty.
“He’s very special to me,” she said.
Young’s paintings also include other animals and landscape scenes.
Marnie Forbis, director of the Bigfork Museum of Art and History, has watched Young’s progression as a painter ever since the artist first entered her work in a members’ show in 1998.
The piece, titled “War Paint,” ended up taking the People’s Choice award.
Since then, the museum’s board and members have become familiar with Young’s work, Forbis said. So when the museum had an opening for a solo show this year, Young’s application was a strong contender.
“She has a really good sense about horses and her subject matter,” Forbis said. “We’ve seen her progress throughout the years since she’s been a member [of the museum]. It was kind of a no-brainer for us.”
Young said she began painting with the hope that her work would one day allow her to fill an entire exhibit. She’s thrilled with her show’s layout and the work the museum put into representing her as an artist. Young said she sold some of her work on the show’s opening night.
Throughout the show’s run in Bigfork, Young will be at the museum on Fridays and Saturdays from noon until 4 p.m. to demonstrate her painting technique. Working in front of an audience sounds unnerving, Young said, but she has spent the last four or five years at the Great Falls Western Art week doing exactly that.
The only time it gets “weird,” Young said, is when she becomes so immersed in her work that she forgets people are standing behind her. Then, when she turns to grab something, the sight of an audience momentarily jolts her.
“I have to apologize for being rude,” she said with a laugh.
Forbis noted that having the artist on hand at a show is a unique chance for museum-goers to connect with the art.
“That’s an opportunity we don’t normally get from artists,” she said.
For more information on Karen Young’s solo show, visit www.bigforkmuseum.org or www.stillwaterartstudio.com.