Local artists enjoy annual Great Falls show, auction

When there's a C.M. Russell auction, there's sure to be a crowd of Flathead artists.

For many area painters and sculptors, the annual C.M. Russell Auction of Original Western Art and art sale in Great Falls is a given on their yearly schedules as both a revenue generator and reunion with friends and colleagues.

"That's one of the fun things about the show - the people you've known for years but don't hardly see each other any other time," Kalispell painter Tom Saubert says.

The artist and many of his peers recently returned from the 37th annual event at the Heritage Inn March 16-19. Saubert went to his first auction in 1976 and is one of many Flathead Valley artists who have been longtime participants in the Russell show.

The show is well known in the art world as a prestigious event that brings together art fans, collectors and quality Western artists. But to local artists it's just as likely known as a time to get together to catch up and share in each others' creative progress.

"It's kind of like old home week," Saubert says.

Saubert, 55, and other local artists say the Flathead has a thriving art community but artists are too busy with shows and work to see each other often. Thus the Russell show has become an annual reunion.

"Any more it's more about seeing old friends," agrees Saubert's friend Frank Hagel, a fellow painter.

Hagel, 70, has been going to the Russell show for about 30 years.

But sculptor Sherry Sander Vranish beats that tenure. She estimates she's been going to the show almost since it started in 1969 at the Rainbow Hotel in Great Fall. It moved to the Heritage Inn in 1974.

The show "was a platform for me to show my work, and it has been for a lot of young artists," she says.

Through the years, Sander Vranish, 63, has had the chance to meet plenty of artists new to the show. And she's been around long enough to watch as other artists have improved their skills and gained popularity.

"It's always an affirmation of what you're doing and that it's getting noticed," Sander Vranish says of presenting work at the Russell event.

The acceptance into the Russell show is a way for artists to know they've arrived into the upper echelons of Western artists, Flathead Valley painters and sculptors say.

"It is the biggest deal in Montana art shows," says Julie Wulf, a Lakeside batik painter.

This year was her fourth year participating in the show. Wulf, 55, says the event is like Disney World for artists. The Heritage Inn transforms into a place that revolves completely around art and artists like Disney World centers on children.

The event is known for its prominence as well as its scale.

"We have a fabulous reputation," says Donna Camp, executive director of the Great Falls Advertising Federation. "It's very rare to mention our art show anywhere in the country and for someone not to have heard of it."

The federation, more commonly called the ad club, produces the event, a fund-raiser for the C.M. Russell museum. Charles Marion Russell was a well-known Western artist who lived from 1864-1926.

Many longtime show participants don't remember the exact year they started participating in the event - but almost all of them recall their inaugural events in detail.

Saubert remembers the painting he put in his first auction. "Two Bit Steers" depicted Flathead ranchers reacting to a drop in beef prices.

He was living in a trailer at the time and the cliche "starving artist" was pretty close to accurate.

"I don't think I'd been in the black yet as a painter," he said.

The piece sold for $1,000 - nothing to scoff at as a young artist, he says.

The Russell show can be lucrative, Flathead artists say.

Bigfork silk painter Nancy Cawdrey is a relative newcomer to the event, but she's already seen how effectively the show produces repeat customers. Cawdrey has been going to the show since 2000. The shows have resulted in both commissions and collectors.

"If people like your work," she says, "they'll come find you."

The event has two parts: a general display of work for sale from the artists and the auction.

For the sale component, sculptors and painters send in photographs or slides of their work. A committee decides if the work is the quality and subject matter fitting for the Russell show and if so, it extends an invitation to the artist.

The artists then sets up his or her work in one of the rooms at the inn and sells pieces to customers who attend the event. Artists often share rooms. About 400 artists participate.

For the auction, the artists send in the actual pieces they want to see bid on by collectors. Three jurors decide which pieces to auction. The Russell jurors usually choose about 80 works.

An additional 70 pieces come from artists invited to put work in. Those are artists who have a reputation for high-quality Western art, Camp says.

Camp names Kalispell painter Joe Abbrescia as an example of an artist whose reputation and accolades superseded the need to jury his work.

Abbrescia was a nationally known artist. The 68-year-old painter died of cancer Feb. 17 and his wife, Sue, accepted the Honorary Chairman's Award on his behalf at the Russell show.

Sue Abbrescia attended this year's show and found herself once again in the company of colleagues and friends.

"We had tears and we had laughter," she said.

For those artists who have long attended the Russell event, it also has become a way to mark and check their artistic progress. Artists keep tabs on each other and discuss what they've accomplished and give each other suggestions.

"You need the support," sculptor Jan Hinrichs says. "You go through times when you're not selling stuff or there's this feeling of dissatisfaction on what you're doing. I think artists are very honest with each other. Especially when they're close, they'll say, 'You might try this.'"

The number of Flathead artists seems to have been fairly consistent over the years, local artists say.

"But it seems as of late more Flathead artists are winning more awards and becoming more prominent," Hagel says.

The list of awards and accolades that have gone to Flathead artists throughout the years, and particularly in the past several years, is lengthy. But Sander Vranish, who served as a juror one year in the 1980s, points out that awards are subjective because they're based on the opinion of just three judges. An artist may win an award one year, then not win the following year even though the artists thinks that piece is far better than the previous one. It all depends on who's judging, she says.

But whether they return to the Flathead from the Russell show laden with awards or not, local artists say they are sure to have come back recharged by visits with old friends.

Reporter Camden Easterling can be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at ceasterling@dailyinterlake.com