Marshall Noice’s paintings, wildly and emotionally vibrant, link contemporary Western art to early 20th century Fauvism. Those artists were known as “Les Fauves,” or “Wild Beasts.”
This I knew. But I’m finding out new and very cool things about Montana-based Expressionist painter Marshall Noice, whose new show of works Shadows & Light, opens at Altamira Fine Art on August 16, 2011. The show runs through August 30, 2011 and and opening reception will be held Thursday, August 18, 5-8:00 pm.
If you have an aptitude for rhythm memory and a fine sense of pitch, you may very well also be an excellent photographer or painter. Noice’s creative path includes music, photography and, most successfully, painting. In a former life he was a drummer, touring and opening for acts as big as the Allman Brothers Band, Cheap Trick, and Tower of Power. Eventually Noice quit the road, moved to Montana and discovered the great photography of Paul Strand, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams.
Noice the photographer came upon the paintings of fellow Montanan Theodore Waddell. Riveted, Noice c0mmenced 100 paintings of Blackfeet artifacts. “After those 100 paintings, I’d found what I was looking for in terms of an art process,” Noice says. “Color doesn’t trump composition in my work. They’re pretty much on equal footing….I have spent a lifetime relating to the landscape in one way or another…I get direct inspiration from being in nature.”
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Jackson Hole artist Jennifer L. Hoffman opens her new show of works, Intrinsic Nature, at Trio Fine Art on Thursday, August 17, 2011. The show runs through September 3, 2011, and an artist’s reception takes place at Trio on Thursday, August 18th, 5-8:00 pm. Twenty-four new works will be included; most are pastels but Hoffman plans to include oil paintings and at least one drawing.
Hoffman says she’s never felt such energy for exploration and pushing her artistic envelope. Noted forher soft, tonalist light and muted palette, Hoffman’s paintings evoke real emotion. This show embraces the artist’s love and examination of “close-in” places: aspen trunks, winding streams and channels, ridgelines, snow and her exquisite, cloud-soft skies.
Nobody does Wyoming sky like Hoffman. Violet cumulus clouds reflect purple winter mountains and
bare trees. She’s a lover of shadow, of rubbing nature’s elements together, rich with texture, spare of detail. A delicate, misty scrim floats over Hoffman’s landscapes.
“Sometimes I find myself noodling around, adding branches and twigs, putting in more and more,” Hoffman notes. “The next day, I come back to the studio and wipe it all back down. It’s not always easy to make things say a lot simply, but that is what I find I want in my paintings. That is what the title of my show is about – trying to extract the essential inspiration from all the detail of nature, and of life….The more I paint, the more I want to paint.”
A final note: Hoffman’s landscapes are part of New York’s Salmagundi 34th Annual Juried Painting & Sculpture Exhibition, featuring works by non-members. View her work there through August 19, 2011. Congrats, Jen! www.triofineart.com
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Cayuse Western Americana “has assembled a fun assortment of maps from Jackson Hole, Grand Teton Park, Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and more.” Artists include Jo Mora, Jolly Lingren and Tom Carrigen. Western jeweler Dawn Bryfogle will be there, too; she’s expanded her range and plans to show big pieces, made of sterling, 14K gold fill and semi precious stones, all with her signature attention to detail.
Stop in to Cayuse (guess when?) Thursday, August 18th, 5-8:00 pm. 307.739.1940 www.cayusewa.com.
Tammy Christel 
