Enjoy Sprunger paintings, cartoons at tea
Seniors have an invitation to enjoy local artist Elmer Sprunger's wildlife paintings and editorial cartoons along with many other exhibits during the July 14 Senior Tour & Tea at the Hockaday Museum of Art.
Scheduled on the second Thursday of each month, the event allows seniors 60 and older to enter the museum for free from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Complimentary coffee, tea and cookies are available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Guests interested in a gallery tour led by a trained volunteer docent should meet at the front desk at 10:30 a.m. The Hockaday invites groups interested in alternative tour times to call and schedule three or more weeks in advance.
On the July tour, seniors will learn interesting facts about Sprunger, who died in 2007 at 87. Born in Kalispell in 1919, he lived with his family on the north end of Swan Lake.
According to the Hockaday's website, he referred to his childhood "as growing up in the cedar jungle on the shady side of Swan Lake" where his lifelong love of the natural world germinated and flourished.
His artistic promise was first noticed in the sketches he made of comic strip figures. As a sophomore in high school, he took art lessons from well-known artist Elizabeth Lochrie.
After marrying and fathering three children, he and his wife Marie moved quite a bit but ended up living in Swan Lake in 1950 and then Bigfork in 1953. At age 52 in 1971, he became a full-time wildlife artist, selling paintings through galleries and through commissions.
Sprunger's realistic painting style earned him a national following. His favorite subjects included wild birds, elk and bear.
His editorial cartoons targeted politicians, dignitaries and the logging of public lands. They were printed in the Bigfork Eagle for 24 years, in the Missoulian and in several national conservation magazines.
Remembered as humble and not interested in advancing his artistic fame, Sprunger's work hangs in the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma, the Safari Club in Las Vegas in public buildings and homes.
Guests at the Senior Tour & Tea may want to check out the fixed-price sale of works created during the Hockaday's fourth annual Plein Air Paintout. Hanging downstairs, the paintings were created June 22-24 in Glacier National Park by 33 well-known Montana artists.
The third main exhibit area showcases the art and artists of Glacier National Park in the Hockaday's permanent collection.
To make visiting easier, the museum has a new parking lot just south of the building that motorists may access from Second Avenue East or the alley. People who need a ramp with wheelchair access should disembark at the back of the museum where the alley meets Third Street East.
Medical Arts Pharmacy and Sykes Pharmacy sponsor the Senior Tour & Tea Day. The Hockaday Museum of Art, a 1904 Carnegie Library Building, is located at 302 Second Ave. E.
The museum is open year-round from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.