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44 | JANUARY 8, 2014
FLATHEADBEACON.COM

COMMUNITY BIGFORK

Travel
Retirement Celebrating Biodiversity

First Business

Growing Family
that you can easily take it for granted.
College
By DAVID VALE
But we shouldn’t, because it’s really spe-
As Brett Thuma tells the story, he al- cial.”
Growing financially requires most lived here his whole life. The Edge- Brett considered becoming a wild-
direction, patience and a water Motel in Lakeside was for sale and life biologist early in his career. He was
plan — a plan based on his father, an Illinois resident with the advised that it can be a great career, but
Healthy Alternative • Homestyle Cooking peculiar love for Montana that many ex- one in which it’s also very diicult to
wisdom and experience. Fresh Baked Bread • Breakfast & Lunch perience, was all set to buy it. He and his make a living. So he became an artist.
D.A. Davidson & Co. has Fresh Ingredients from Local Farmers
been helping investors wife, Joan, igured they could make a go “Some artists,” he notes, “get their
chart their financial goals Soups, Sandwiches, Paninis, Wraps, Salads, of the combination mo-
for over 75 years. When Quiches, Cookies, Pastries & Pies, Espresso
tel, restaurant and ish-
you’re ready to chart your Grillers, Scratch-Made Pizza
ing guide service. Joan,
Fresh Wild Huckleberry Pies, Pancakes, toting the one-month-
course, call us.
Wales and Smoothies
old Brett at the time
and perhaps the more
practical of the two,
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was somewhat less tak-
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en with the possibility
of dividing her time be-
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200 First Ave. E., K-M band spent long days as
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Bldg., Kalispell, MT a guide on the lake. In
59901
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8111 Hwy 35 306 Stoner Loop
1-888-564-3008 in Illinois, living there
BIGFORK LAKESIDE
14 West Second Street, through high school
(Next to Harvest Foods)
(Lakeside Town Center)
Whiteish, MT 59937
and college. But three
10am-4pm Mon–Fri Open Tues-Sun for Breakfast,
weeks after graduation
837-BAKE
Lunch & Dinner, 8am-7pm
from Albion College, he
844-BAKE
Brett Thuma in his gallery.
made his way west to
DAVID VALE PHOTO
Montana and never looked back.
“ALL our breads are made in-house from scratch.”
inspiration from photographs in maga-

Brett, it seems, fell in love with Mon- zines. I don’t. I spend a lot of time out in
tana at an early age when his family nature. I ind it spiritually uplifting to
came west for a visit. Although he even- spot a species I haven’t seen before. And
tually settled in Northwest Montana, he I’ve seen most of them. I’m still looking
fell in love a bit southeast of that. The for the Woodland Caribou, though.”
family trip began in Yellowstone and “Sometimes I paint on the spot,” he
headed northwest. Big Sky was more an continues. “But I also take lots of photo-
idea than a town at the time. But as the
graphs with lots of diferent angles and
light snow drifted down and the sun set exposures so I can get the shapes, the
on the mountains and ski lifts that late colors, and the shadows just right. My
August evening, Brett knew Montana paintings look like paintings rather than
was the place he wanted to be. It was photographs. They don’t have the detail
EVENTS
several years later, with degrees in Art that some do, but the content is authen-
and American Studies, that Brett came tic. You can look at the lowers or trees in
MONTANA’S CHRISTMAS VILLAGE
to Bigfork to paint signs in the Meissen- my paintings and recognize the species.

Chamber of Commerce burg sign factory.
None of them are generic.”
I talked with Brett recently at his Brett now makes his living as a full-
Sundowner at the Mountaineer
gallery at Twin Birch Square in Bigfork time artist, painting the wildlife and
Village, a gallery he established almost landscapes that are Montana, some-
20 years ago. “When I irst came to Mon- times for himself and sometimes on
hursday, January 9, 5:00PM
tana,” he relates, “I worked in the sign commission. The walls of his gallery are
factory by day, but I spent all of my spare covered with prints of his works.
Un-Decorate Bigfork
time photographing, painting, or just “Yeah, the originals go pretty quick-

experiencing the nature that is Mon- ly and I don’t paint that fast.” I look at his
Saturday, January 25, 8:00AM tana. We have such extreme biodiversity extensive portfolio, which he has on dis-
here: The variety of native plants, the play at the desk. “Yes, there are a lot, but
Meet at the Bigfork Inn
ish, the wildlife. The charismatic mega- that’s twenty three years worth of work.
fauna, alone, would make it exciting, but I like to spend time in the gallery where
AUDITIONS for Cowabunga
that’s just the beginning.”
I can meet with customers. It limits the
Charismatic megafauna? “Charis- amount of time I can spend painting,

January 28 & 29 3:30-5:30PM both days matic megafauna refers to the large ani- though.”
mals like bear, moose, and mountain Brett’s mother, Joan, remains part of
at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts
lions; animals that capture the imagi- the picture. When Brett spends his days
nation. You sit on a rock in a good spot on the lake or in the ield, Joan is often-
and stay still and they’ll just wander by times behind the desk at the gallery. Not
you, going about their usual business. quite the Edgewater Motel, but the mag-
For times & details, visit or call: the Chamber:
And it’s not just the big game. The diver- netic nature that is Montana ultimately
sity of songbirds. It’s all so common here
made her call Bigfork home.
www.bigfork.org • 837-5888