Ostrom painting to be auctioned

Local radio personality G. George Ostrom says he’s been “enraptured” with art since childhood.

“Ever since I was little I couldn’t believe people could take a little brush and create such beautiful work,” he said.

While Ostrom, 85, is a true admirer of Western artwork and has been an art collector through the years, many of his fans may not realize he’s also a painter himself.

“I’ve been dabbling since I was a kid,” he said.

One of his oil paintings, a 1970s rendition of three grizzly bears, will be sold through a silent auction during an open house from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Innovations North gallery on U.S. 2 north of Glacier Park International Airport.

Ostrom said he brought the grizzly bear painting to famous Western artist Ace Powell for a critique when the piece was nearly completed.

“I asked Ace what I should do,” Ostrom recalled. “He said I was doing very well, and he told me, ‘Don’t paint a background. Keep it simple.’”

As Ostrom tells the story, Powell also told him he was an “impatient and lazy” artist.

“Ace didn’t beat around the bush,” he said with a laugh.

Another of Ostrom’s paintings, “Ruder’s Rams,” features a group of bighorn sheep on the Grinnell Glacier Overlook in Glacier Park, and is a based on a photograph taken by the late Mel Ruder, founder and longtime publisher of the Hungry Horse News.

Ostrom seems to have inherited some of his artistic ability from his mother, Hazel Ostrom, who also was a skilled painter.

He made a point through the years of learning about local and regional aspiring artists, particularly those who focused on Western art.

“That’s the kind of people I associated with,” he said. “I’ve tried to find painters who had something extra going for them, painters who capture the subject so well it puts you right there” in the moment of the scene.

To his chagrin, some of the best artists “I didn’t discover until it was too late,” and the price tags for their original artwork climbed well beyond his price range.

Sometimes Ostrom got in on the ground floor of an artist’s career, though. He once owned a couple of pieces by Bob Kuhn, considered one of the best wildlife illustrators of his generation.

Ostrom sold his Kuhn artwork to launch his start in the radio business decades ago.

The Innovations North collector’s gallery, operated by Ostrom’s daughter, Heidi Ostrom Duncan, features a variety of artwork and memorabilia from Ostrom’s personal collection, along with a variety of Montana-themed books. The gallery also sells original and limited edition paintings by several well-known artists, including Ace Powell, Tom Saubert, Frank Hagel and Chester Fields.

Innovations North is located at 5532 U.S. 2 E., 2.5 miles north of Glacier Park International Airport and 1.5 miles south of the Blue Moon Nite Club, on the west side of the highway in the Columbia Mountain business complex.

Ostrom will sign copies of his Glacier Park photo book, “Glacier’s Secrets” Goat Trails and Grizzly Tales,” from 2 to 4 p.m. during the Saturday open house.

For more information, call Heidi Ostrom Duncan at 261-4775, email innovationsnorth@gmail.com or find the gallery on Facebook.