Altamira Fine Art continues its ascent by adding yet another new artist to its roster: Marshall Noice. Some years ago I wrote about Noice for Planet Jackson Hole. The column went something like this:
Noice, who lives and paints in Kallispell, Montana, is a nationally noted artist whose works are part of many prestigious collections. However, the prize he holds most dear comes from the Blackfeet Nation, which, in 1987, honored Noice with a name-giving ceremony. Medicine man George Kicking Woman, who saw Noice’s name in a vision, gave the artist a Blackfeet name: “E-Kah-She-Mah-Kin.”
I don’t know the translation, but I do know that Noice began his artistic career as a photographer. The work taught him about light. In fact, Noice was Ansel Adams’ assistant during the summer of 1977, and the experience gave birth to Noice’s love of landscape.
“I have sometimes wondered if I live here because of the work I do, or if I do the work because I live here,” muses Noice. “An interesting question without an answer. I learned how to see light from Ansel Adams. He was a great teacher. I really learned how to recognize landscapes. I feel that my experience in photography has helped me to develop a heightened sensitivity towards landscapes.”
Noice’s work also has to be influenced by Fauvism. For the Fauves, color is 
TOUT. It is applied furiously, without restraint, and it is wholly interpretive.
Art history lesson alert!
“Fauvism” refers to a period in art history having its genesis in 1905, when French painter Henri Matisse and his buddies Andre Derain, Maurice Vlaminck, Albert Marquet, Raoul Dufy, and Georges Braque first displayed new paintings drenched with color; huge, vast masses of unbroken, emotional, explosive color. These painters and others were given the nickname “Les Fauves,” –the Wild Beasts. Upon seeing the collection of wildly colorful paintings surrounding a comparatively run-of-the-mill sculpture, unveiled for the first time at the 1905 Paris Salon d’Automme, French art critic Louis Vauxcelles remarked that “it was like a Donatello ‘parmi les fauves’”-among the wild beasts.
Wildlife art. Wild Beasts. Sense a century-old connection here?
Contemporary Western Art is in no way disconnected from art history’s great movements; it descends from many masters and traditions. Artists in the West articulate landscape and are paying homage to light, color, and “the shapes of things,” as artists always have.
In addition to Trio house artist Lee Carlman Riddell hosting a painting workshop in Tuscany, her gallery partner Kathryn Mapes Turner has said “yes” to an invitation to exhibit her work alongside those of Michigan painter John Felsing.
The two artists plan a joint exhibition at Altamira Fine 
Art, where Felsing is represented. The show runs March 11-13, kicking off with an artist’s reception on Thursday, March 11, 5-7 pm, at Altamira, in Jackson.
The show does not signal any change in Turner’s affiliation with Trio Fine Art. More on this special exhibition soon.
Tammy Christel 
