Barker, Hughesville ,MT, Ghost town, mine.

Inside a building, under a beam, this mushroom was growing upside down! Believe it or not!
These buildings sit at the top of a tailings pile. I don't know what they would have been used for in the old time mining days.

Ha! Ha! just because these buildings were all ready tumbling down, I had to play with the horizon line to add to the tumbledown effect.
There isn't much left of the inside of these buildings. I just hate to see them disappearing like they are. But it would cost a fortune to repair and restore them. I'm glad to have these photos to preserve my memory of them, and hope you enjoy the chance to see them also.
Here it is straightened up!
The moment before we drove away from this place, I glanced up into a ruined house and saw this face. It was the spirit of this place, screaming in agony over the passage of time, the ruination of what had been constructed here, the memories of people who spent their lives struggling for riches and living in poverty, the rape of the mountainside.....

Travel to places like this if you will, you'll come away with a new outlook on the life you live today.
Donna Ridgway

Montana photo, west of Augusta. "Storm Coming In"

This is one of the photos from yesterday that I especially liked. When you look at it, you can feel the cold, harsh, climate we sometimes have. I liked the stark, simple, beauty in this scene.

I believe if you click on this photo, you'll see a larger image. My copyright notice won't appear on your photo.

This photo can be ordered on canvas, gallery wrap, or on paper as a print. Email me if you'd like to have it in your home.
Donna Ridgway
Email Me if you have questions, or want to inquire about purchasing a painting.

Remember, you can find horse art, Western art, Mule and Donkey art
wildlife art, cow art, and animal paintings, for sale on my website.

Sled dog, Polebridge, MT, charcoal sketch

My dad gave me some reams of paper. He found lots of paper. So I'm doing some quick sketches to begin using it up!

My fire went out in the studio last night, and it got cold. My fingers were getting stiff as boards over there and my coffee was like ice in the cup. So I came back to the house, waiting for it to warm up over there! The pellet stove we put over there is working good but I turned it to the very lowest setting and it went out. I guess you can't do that with a pellet stove as they don't seem to like it. Why put that low setting on them if you can't burn them that way? :)

This is one of the sled dogs I photographed at Polebridge when we went to the sled dog races there. I've never seen so much intensity before! Those dogs are psycho to run. I hope I catch some of their personalities in the sketches and paintings I'll be doing.

I'm starting with a lot of sketches to get more familiar with the dogs and the shapes of them. They aren't like pet dogs in the fact they're so lean, and muscled. Also this intensity of expression they have....I'll draw them until I feel I'm getting somewhere with them.

If you've never been to Polebridge, Mt you need to find it. There's an old store there, been there since the 1800's. They bake bread and the store smells wonderful! The bread is out of this world.

Polebridge is North of Columbia Falls, up the North Fork of the Flathead River.
Donna

So Who's Scared in Dupuyer, Mt?

This is my beginning drawing for this painting. It's pretty funky at this stage! Lot's of things to fix. I like drawing on the canvas, erasing with turpentine, changing things, fixing things and generally beginning a painting. This is my favorite stage.

This is the same painting as it has progressed. It's going to be hard to tell who's more afraid, the horse or the kids! This is life in Dupuyer, Mt today. When the cowboy comes to town, the horse has to deal with it. When the cowboy comes to town, the town kids have to deal with it too!
Donna