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Spanish Peaks Studio
Jan Elpel Fine Art
Oil Paintings & Portrait Drawings

      Welcome to Jan Elpel's virtual studio. Please enjoy a tour of my plein air paintings as well as quick draw portraits of interesting local individuals.
      I accept commissions for portraits from live sittings or photos. I paint in oils on Belgian lines or canvas. I also do thirty- or fifty-minute life drawings in charcoal, graphite or pastel chalk. For commissioned work, please send me an e-mail through Granny's Country Store to inquire.

(Photos of artist courtesy of Jan Zimmerman)

Landscapes | Portraits


Landscape Paintings

      Teton Gold (Size: 22" x 28" ) - "Teton Gold" was painted quickly and freely with palette knives after I attended a Robert Moore workshop at Nicholas Fine Art in Billings, Montana. I applied Moore's color mixing theory to provide an overall harmony in the painting.
      I was also inspired years ago by a Bill Reese painting at a Western Rendezvous show in Helena, Montana, in which a simple mountain was tranformed into an orchestration of hue; the painting became less that of a mountain than that of an intriguing emotion.
      Zhang Wenxin from Beijing, who taught at the Wilcox Gallery in Jackson, also contributed to my study of atmospheric effects on the landscape. Though I am primarily a portrait- and life-drawing artist, I wanted to apply the principles of color and light to this painting of the Tetons. "Teton Gold" was meant to say less about the mountain than the soul. Oil on canvas. $2,500.


      Spirit of the Gravellys (Size: 12" x 21.75" ). This oil painting is based on a black and white photo from a 1982 copy of the Madisonian, the newspaper of Virginia City and Ennis area of Montana. I imagined the splendor of the actual scene chanced upon by a hunter in the Gravelly Mountains who shot with his camera instead of his gun.
      Evening in the mountains represents a colorwheel from sharply complimentary blues and oranges to fiery shades of pastels as seen in "Evening in the Gravellys" (right). The naturalness of the scene, grazing mule deer alerted by an intruder but remaining on the skyline, is so essentially Montana that embodies wilderness here. $500

      Evening in the Gravellys (Size: 21.75" x 32.5" ) My fascination with the naturalness of the deer on the skyline inspired another oil painting, this time more of a silhouette. I could paint the evening sky every day for a year and fail to match the ever changing hues of actual sunsets over the mountains. This fiery glow came about by limiting the palette chiefly to old-fashioned sepia and red-oxide moderated by cool transparent green. The bright contrast was achieved by further use of undiluted transparents and by placing the lightest light by a hard-edged dark.$700.


      Spirit of the Bob Marshall (Size: 41" x 51" ). The gentle clip-clop of the horses and mules meld with the natural flow of life in the wilderness of the Bob Marshall. The animals move across the land in the timeless manner of those ridden by the earliest tribal nations and later by the explorers. Artists on our pack trip last summer were similarly privileged to experience the breathtaking vastness of the mountain ranges, to breathe in the fragrance of wild roses, and to delight at snatches of permanent green light and crimson, yellow-gold and blues splashed in meadows among the trees.
      I was there painting when I looked up to see the mule train silhouetted on the knoll. I realized with despair that my camera was in my saddlebag so I gazed in awe, thrilled by the pageantry until the procession disappeared into the pines below. The memory I held was captured last winter on this large canvas. Notable landmarks were included with a bit of artistic composition.
      I felt compelled to preserve the scene just as those who had the foresight were compelled to preserve the pristine, wild spaces of the Bob Marshall. Thankfully, nowhere is the land marred by power and telephone lines, roads or manmade structures. Only the faint animal trails crisscross the landscape that is changeless, then and now. $1,500.


      Grand Old Lady I, II, & III (Sizes: 24" x 36" | 24" x 30" | 24" x 18" ) - The Gallatin Gateway Inn in Gallatin Gateway, Montana: A romanticized reflection of an earlier era of the known and loved landmark inn as seen in the piercing light of morning, the warm, heavy cast of the afternoon sun and again at last light of day. Oil on canvas. Grand Old Lady I (left), SOLD. Grand Old Lady Afternoon (middle), SOLD. Grand Old Lady Sunset (right), $600.

      Imagination (Size: 16" x 20" ) and Evening Fire (Size: 8" x 10" ) are luminous abstract landscapes that seem in motion with changes in the viewing angle and lighting. Oil on Belgian linen. Imagination: $1,000. Evening Fire: $250.


      India (Size: 8" x 10" ) This palette knife painting is based on a photo taken by my son in rural India where thatching is a way of life. The open door invites the viewer to an intimate scene along the dusty street where plodding of thin Brahmas takes one back thousands of years. I visualized colors close in harmony bringing the sky and dirt road together then emphasized the deeper values to set off the sorrowful face of the beast of burden. Oil on canvas. (Not for sale.)


Biographical Sketch
Jan Elpel has studied life drawing and portaits intensively, including workshops with renowned portrait artists Carolyin Anderson, Ned Mueller, and Zhang Wenxin. She attended many summer artist camps with Jessica Zemsky and Jack Hines and once had the privilege there of instruction from Everett Raymond Kintsler, foremost portraitist in America. Elpel has learned to quicly catch the character and spirit of the individual through use of oils, charcoal, pastel or gouche. Portraits reflect "our town" qualities of a variety of individuals from all walks of life. Elpel combines a fascination with psycology and the study of people in realistically interpreting the human face and form. She also studied the figure, landscapes, and still life with John and Karen Garre, Howard Friedland, Thomas English, and Robert Moore over the years.

Elpel, a.k.a. Jeannette Jewett, grew up in Willow Creek, Montana where she has been the featured artist at the Willow Creek Gallery several times. She has exhibited for years with the Montana Institute of the Arts Bozeman Artists, been a member of the Grant-Kohrs Gathering for two years and exhibited throughout the state. Work is currently shown at the Hole in the Wall Gallery in Ennis. She participated in the Quick Draw auction at Virgina City Montana Arts Festival in August 2005.

Elpel chaired the Bozeman Artists Art for Kids mentoring and scholarship outreach program for many years. She frequently teaches art in the schools and provides one-to-one mentoring for aspiring artists. Please inquire about drawing or painting workshop schedules.

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406-287-3605
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PO Box 684
Silver Star, MT 59751
406-287-3605
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