2 new exhibits open at Hockaday

Two new exhibits open at the Hockaday Museum of Art this month.

Peter Moore’s “Up the North Fork” will be on display from Aug. 22 through Nov. 2. “Up the North Fork” is an exhibition of vivid acrylic paintings featuring the beauty of the Flathead River’s North Fork area and Glacier National Park.

For the past 32 years, Moore has been creating crisp, clear, colorful paintings of nature. He works in-studio using photos, sketches and observation notes. Moore paints in acrylic with small brushes and, because of his eyesight, works very close to the canvas surface.

“Because of this technique, I see only small areas of the canvas at a time,” he said. “Therefore, the shapes that I am dealing with become abstract — like pieces of a puzzle. My work is an attempt to show others what I see.”

In 1979, Moore left his native Minnesota for the remote mountains of Northwest Montana. There in the woods, far from the amenities of electricity, telephone and running water, he built a log cabin and began living his life as an artist. The changing seasons, wandering wild animals and miles of mostly untouched wilderness feed his passion to create art.

Michael Stockhill’s “Abstracts & Artifacts” are digitally printed photographs that feature images that strive to find the abstract in the ordinary. The exhibit will be on display from Aug. 29 through Oct. 12.

Stockhill had an unanticipated breakout during his landscape photography days, suddenly finding abstract compositions in the details of abandoned trucks and machinery. As he refined his eye, many of his images became less identifiable as photographs than as abstract paintings. A selection of such images forms the core of the Hockaday’s exhibition.

“Most viewers of my work will question that these images are actually photographs, and then wonder from what object they were excerpted,” Stockhill said.

Stockhill grew up in Whitefish and Kalispell, and now calls Polson home. After a career in aviation, he retired as a senior investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

His additional professional experience includes working as a managing editor of an aviation magazine, and contributing editor, contributing photographer and author of about 200 aviation articles for national magazines.

A free opening reception for both artists will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 5. That day, the community is also invited to hear Moore and Stockhill discuss their work during the Hockaday’s Conversations with the Artists series.

Moore will speak from 4 to 4:30 p.m., and Stockhill will discuss his work from 4:30 to 5 p.m. Admission to the talk is free for museum members and $10 for nonmembers.

The Hockaday is located at 302 Second Ave. E., Kalispell. For additional information, call 755-5268 or visit www.hockadaymuseum.org.