People's Choice award winners named
<p class="p1">Jack Hagel’s “Big Bow on the Blackfoot” was the first-place winner in the People’s Choice Awards at the Hockaday Museum of Art's Member's Salon.</p>
<p class="p1">Second place in the People's Choice Awards went to “The Eyes Have It,” an India ink wash by Bigfork resident Darlene Morgan.</p>
<p class="p1">Bigfork wood sculptor Rand Robbin claimed third-place honors with “Martian Wake in Roswell, 1947.”</p>
A Kalispell artist’s oil painting was the favorite at this year’s Members Salon at the Hockaday Museum of Art.
Jack Hagel’s “Big Bow on the Blackfoot” was the first-place winner in the People’s Choice Awards.
More than 120 Hockaday artist members participated in the 12th annual Members Salon, showing a diverse range of two- and three-dimensional works.
Many of the participants offer their works for sale in the museum, giving the public a chance to acquire works for display in their private collections. A portion of the proceeds from each sold piece is donated to the Hockaday’s exhibition and education funds.
A Kalispell native, Hagel spent his early years as a hunting guide, packer and horse wrangler. His next 28 years were spent as a buckskin tanner and taxidermist, with his buckskins featured in many Western movies.
He was an early student of sculptor Frank Divita and his father, noted Western painter Frank Hagel.
Jack Hagel’s works include Montana landscapes, wildlife, hunting, fishing, and contemporary and historical Western scenes. Hagel is inspired by many of the great artists of the past, as well as by nature and personal experiences in the Western outdoors.
“I feel very honored to have won the People’s Choice Award for the Members Salon and am extremely grateful to all who voted for my painting,” he says.
Hagel’s prize is a solo exhibition of his works at the Hockaday Museum in fall 2014.
Second place went to “The Eyes Have It,” an India ink wash by Bigfork resident Darlene Morgan.
For the past 45 years, Morgan has loved painting American Indian people and strives to capture their pride and ethnicity. She concentrates on the very old and the very young, and is captivated by the innocence of youth and wisdom and character of the elderly.
This is Morgan’s third consecutive year in placing in the top two slots in the Hockaday Members Salon and takes home a $100 cash prize.
Bigfork wood sculptor Rand Robbin claimed third-place honors with “Martian Wake in Roswell, 1947.”
Beautifully crafted in black maple and burl of walnut, “Wake” is Robbin’s personal reaction to and interpretation of an unidentified flying object crash incident that occurred in New Mexico. Robbin wins a $50 cash prize.
The 12th annual Members Show will be on exhibit at the Hockaday Museum of Art through Saturday. The museum invites the public to take advantage of free admission during the Holiday Open House, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday.
The Hockaday is located at 302 Second Ave. E. For more information, visit www.hockadaymuseum.org or call 755-5268.