Every year as we mount our woodworking exhibit, I am reminded of how much I appreciate not only the craftsmanship and artistry of our wood artists — but the source of their raw material: the trees themselves. And writing this, I remembered way back, a blog post I wrote on Tim Carney’s website titled “The Songs of Trees.” I had to go looking for the music – yes it really is music, unique and kinda wild, made by a device that “plays” tree rings like an LP.

So, trees. Wood. The warmth of wood, of natural materials, of organic curves and soft angles. I am fascinated by the way trees that have been wounded, or stressed, or bent produce scars and signs of their struggles – and those scars make the wound more beautiful to our eyes. Burls are like that. And are a metaphor for the beauty formed in us, by our experiences both delightful and sorrowful. Look at the woodworker’s hands in the photo below. So much depth of experience and many flaws here, yet these hands are as beautiful as the hands of a baby (they are Tim’s hands.)

Art of Wood is our annual invitational woodworking show. This year we again invited our three favorite woodworking artists, Tim Carney, Boyd Carson and Tom Robinson. We also welcomed a new young Helena woodworker, John Brogan. His “day job” is unsurprising – he does finish carpentry and trim work as a builder. Yet his passion is furniture and wow – I have to say he’s got it going! The round mirrors are John’s as are the boxes and Pendleton-upholstered bench.

Sometimes an exhibit needs just a little tweak to make it sing. In the case of Art of Wood, I knew exactly the painter I wanted to invite to contribute his forest landscapes: Paul Blumenthal. Paul is an architect by training and an accomplished, self-taught painter with a distinctive expressionist style. His works encompass abstracts inspired by the desert in Israel, forest tracts burned by wildfire, and light-filled Montana landscapes.

The opening reception Friday evening was a blast! We were delighted by the large turnout and everyone who came had fun. The artists were all in attendance and spent their evening entertaining and educating our guests with stories, studio techniques and answering questions. Check out the photos below, from the reception. And make sure you come to our next exhibit opening night — May 12th we open Celebrate the Body 2023, our annual art jewelry and figurative art show. It also happens to be the same night as the Downtown Helena Spring Art Walk, so we KNOW we’ll see you there.

~ Maureen Shaughnessy

Browse the exhibit here

Don’t miss our opening receptions, if you’re anywhere close to Helena. Check out the fun!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Exhibition Dates: March 4 – 25, 2023

Curator’s Statement

Throughout her career as a graphic designer and visual artist, the late Jan Novy didn’t like to toot her own horn. She was a prolific watercolorist, a meticulous yet playful colorist and a gifted draftsman. Because she was reluctant to show her work, she left behind a little studio in her back garden which was filled with folders, drawers, and boxes of drawings and small paintings along with many annotated color experiments and a big pile of sketchbooks. A mutual friend of Jan’s and mine — Robin Leenhouts — brought me along on a mission to see the swatch pages, scraps and watercolors she had left behind. Jan’s husband, Paul Cartwright was delighted when we suggested hosting a posthumous exhibition of Jan’s drawings and paintings, specifically to highlight her meticulous process and exploration of ideas and colors.

LOOK CLOSELY, a Jan Novy Retrospective is curated in thematic groupings: Neighborhood, Shelters, Windows, Cultivation, Small Patches and Process/Swatch pieces. Titles came from her sketchbooks, annotations and notes. Some pieces are signed and dated, others are tiny corners of larger pages we chose to frame without her signature.

Novy was the kind of artist who carried an idea beyond what most artists would. She would explore an idea like roofs in different mediums, making dozens, even hundreds, of drawings – abstracting the essence of “roof”. In thumbing through her sketchbooks, I was impressed by how deeply she studied writing systems, maps, seeds, grids and patterns. I wouldn’t have that kind of patience.

Nor would I have the patience to draw with the super fine point 0.05mm pen and miniscule three-hair paint brushes she used. I can’t even see some of her lines clearly without a magnifying glass!

Jan had a broad range of interests. She was curious about patterns and fascinated by writing systems. In her sketchbooks she made hundreds of studies of indigenous shelters, gardens, fences, windows, landforms, rocks, walls, riverbeds and rooflines. One large folder holds stunning pencil sketches of hundreds of birds (which we hope to show in our Feathers and Flora exhibit later this summer.)

Paul Cartwright and DD Dowden contributed the matting and framing. Maureen Shaughnessy curated the exhibit. The pieces in this exhibit include framed paintings and drawings as well as unframed (buyers can choose their own preferred framing style) Everything is incredibly affordable and we hope that everyone who knew Jan, or is new to her work, finds something to take home and treasure. Her pieces are not only a window into the artist’s mind and heart — they will inspire us all to look closer at the many tiny beautiful details of everyday life.

~ Maureen Shaughnessy

Shop the exhibit here

A sampling of what you can see in person at 1+1=1 Gallery during the solo show:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.