Winter 2024 Hours: Tuesday: 11 am- 5 pm ; Wednesday- Saturday 11 am–4 pm                                                          

Crits & Croissants

Saturday Morning Artists’ Critique

Occurring on the second Saturday of every other month • 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Enjoy coffee, tea, croissants, and a professional artist’s feedback!  

Participation is $5 for Members and $10 for Non-members. Please bring 1-2 recent works to share.

Upcoming Critiques

Crits and Croissants with Pam Ciupa

Saturday, February 13, 2024 from 10:30am-noon

Visual artist Pam Ciupa 


This month features MT artist Pamm Ciupa! Ciupa has lived in and explored the Rocky Mountains on both sides of the border, from the Alaska Highway to Eastern Utah. She is a student of nature, always working to express that in her landscape paintings. Starting out in watercolor, Ciupa began sharing her knowledge with others through demos, classes, art clubs, and private lessons. She later transitioned to oil painting, attending countless workshops with professional artists.
Ciupa has also competed in several Plein Air events around the country, from Florida to right here in the Glacier National Park. In recent years, she has received classical art training while attending atelier school, and studying/apprenticing with renowned artists Scott Christensen and Lori Putnam, among others.

Past Critiques

 

Crits and Croissants with Rob Akey Saturday, December 9, 2023 from 10:30am-noon

Born a third generation Whitefish, Montana native, Rob displayed an early propensity for drawing and painting. Much childhood idle time was spent doodling comic book characters, the family pet, real and imagined scenery, and whatever presented itself for a kid with a pencil and an itch to draw. Rob went on to study at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design receiving a degree in Design & Illustration. In the fall of 2005, after a lifetime of honing his skills and refining his work in positions including as a designer & Director of Creative Services with Tonka Toys, Rob achieved his lifelong dream of becoming a full-time artist. He is inspired by Charlie Russell and the American Impressionists among others. A full-time painter in his Whitefish studio, Akey also serves on the Board of Directors for the Hockaday Museum of Art. 

Crits and Croissants with Tessa Heck Saturday, October 14, 2023 from 10:30am-noon

Visual artist Tessa Heck’s contemporary paintings, murals and works on paper play with narratives around contemporary landscapes, motherhood, and often draws a hard line between beauty and grotesque in her portraiture. The Hockaday has her first solo exhibition on display in our upstairs gallery ‘Tessa Heck: Way Too Slow, Way Too Fast’ featuring large-scale, contemporary landscapes and Heck’s interpretations and experience of motherhood. 

Heck received her BFA from Pacific Lutheran University and her MFA in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art. Heck has shown work in galleries all across the West, and currently operates her own gallery, Good Luck Gallery in Kalispell, Montana, which focuses on showcasing emerging and mid-career artists with design-forward artwork. 

 

Crits and Croissants with Jane Latus Emmert.Saturday, June 10, 2023 from 10:30am-noon

Jane hikes, paints, hunts, and fishes in Northwest Montana and her paintings reflect the freedom and openness of her life. Her friends call her ‘Montana Jane’, which she thinks is fitting because the woods, water, and wilderness tantalize her with the feel of the wind, the smell of the pines, and the sound of bird songs. Collectors say Jane’s art allows them to travel back in time to the days when life moved at a gentler pace in the Land of the Big Sky. Jane Latus Emmert was chosen to participate in the Hockaday’s Artist Wilderness Connection in 2006, and received a grant from the Montana Arts Council in 2010. In 2004 she was the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence selected artist for a poster created commemorating victims of domestic violence, and in 2008 she was honored with the “Women Who Make a Difference” award by Soroptomist International. Jane teaches Expressive Art and Plein Air courses in the Flathead Valley – she says that “color, texture, and the wilderness define who I am as an artist and as Montana Jane”.  

Crits and Croissants with nancy Dunlop Cawdrey

Saturday, April 8, 2023, 10:30am-noon

This month’s featured artist is Montana artist Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey. 

Montana artist Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey is a colorist with a strong sense of design whether she is creating a signature western work, a colorful floral, or a vibrant wildlife painting. She is an avid plein air (outdoors) painter, which is often inspired by living close to Glacier National Park, and explores many different mediums, but is best known for her paintings on silk. For the past few years she has worked on an ambitious project called Forever Glacier: The Legacy Project creating works of the mammals of Glacier. She was a featured artist in the Hockaday Museum of Art’s annual exhibition A Timeless Legacy: Women Artists of Glacier, and has regularly participated in the C.M. Russell Auction, the Buffalo Bill Show, the Phippen Museum Show, and has shown at the National Cowboy Museum, the National Cowgirl Museum, the Gilcrease Museum, and various other shows across the country. Other honors include Featured Artist at the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, and numerous years as “Peoples’ Choice” at the Buffalo Bill Show- in Cody, Wyoming.

Crits and Croissants with Michelle Usibelli

Saturday, February 11th 2023, 10:30am-noon

This month’s featured artist is Michelle Usibelli. Whitefish-based painter Michele Usibelli’s artwork has shown in both group and solo gallery exhibitions as well as regional, national and international juried exhibitions and Museum Auctions. She has won numerous awards, including the Silver Medal Award at the prestigious Salmagundi Club, NYC and the UCI Institute and Museum of California Art Award. Her artwork can be found in public and private collections throughout the world including the permanent collection at the University of Alaska Fairbanks/Museum of the North and, most recently, the State of Hawaii for their permanent collection. Usibelli has followed her passion to teach, conducting ongoing workshops and art demonstrations throughout the US and internationally.

Michele is a proud member of the following organizations; Oil Painters of America/Signature Member, American Impressionist Society/Signature Member, Women Artists of the West/Signature Member, California Art Club/Artist Member, Salmagundi Club/NYC, American Women Artists/Signature Member and Laguna Plein Air Painters Association/Signature Member. Michele is an elected Oil Painters of America Board Member and sits on the PleinAir Magazine Advisory Council. 

Crits and Croissants with artist Tom Lewis

Saturday, December 10th, 2022, 10:30am -noon

This month’s featured guest is artist Tom Lewis. Having been raised on the Navajo Indian Reservation and several cattle ranches in Colorado and New Mexico and while residing in the Southwest for six decades, Lewis now calls Montana home. Lewis first emerged as a serious painter in 1960 and has exhibited in galleries throughout the west.  An avid lover of the beauty inherent in the outdoors and the natural world, Lewis explores several themes in his representative and interpretive works. His work is owned and displayed by collectors, corporations, organizations across the west. 

Crits and Croissants with Artist Tammy Phillips

Saturday, October 8th, 2022 10:30 am-noon

This month’s featured guest is artist and gallery owner Tammy Phillips. Phillips was born and grew up in Kalispell, Montana. She is a signature member of the Alaska Watercolor Society and has served as vice president and chair with the Montana Watercolor Society.  She has been accepted and won awards in several juried exhibitions.  She founded and ran the Phillips Studio & Gallery in Fairbanks, Alaska from 2011-2018. In 2018, she and her husband moved back to Montana. She has exhibited with the Going To The Sun Gallery in Whitefish, the Montana Watercolor Society, and at the Bigfork Art & Cultural Center and continues to participate in the Hockaday Museum of Art’s annual members show. In 2021 she opened her namesake gallery in Kalispell. Tammy Phillips is passionate about promoting the arts and hosts a new exhibit in her gallery monthly featuring different artists.

Crits and Croissants with artist Gail Hansen

Saturday, August 13th, 10:30 am-noon

This month’s featured guest artist is Kalispell based artist Gail Hansen. She considers the Hockaday Museum a Montana treasure to be celebrated and enjoyed! Hansen’s first solo exhibition at the museum was in 1997. She has won ‘Best of Show” at Arts in the Park twice and has twice been awarded the ”People’s Choice” award in museum exhibitions. She looks forward to sharing what she has learned in her 30 years of study and painting experience with Crits & Croissants participants.

 

Crits and Croissants with artist Mark Ogle

Saturday, June 11th, 10:30 am-noon

Calling all artists! If you are ready to take your work to the next level, join us at the Hockaday to meet other artists and receive professional feedback on your work!

Please Bring one or two recent works to share.
 

OCTOBER 9, 2021

Crits and Croissants with Susan Guthrie

Saturday, October 9, 10:30 am-noon

Susan Guthrie, an accomplished painter, is a native of Montana, and taught at Flathead High art for twenty five years. She continues to guide students through art programs at FVCC. An outdoor enthusiast with a deep love and appreciation of the natural world, Susan chases after the special moments that can be captured on canvas.

 

AUGUST 14, 2021 

Crits & Croissants with artist Sunnie LeBlanc

Saturday, August 14, 10:30 am-noon
Members: $5, Non-members: $10

Sunnie LeBlanc, who divides her time between Fort Worth, Texas and her home in Montana’s Flathead Valley,  loves painting in the outdoors in Glacier National Park and Northwest Montana. She is a member of the Outdoor Painters Society (OPS), a signature member of the Fort Worth 15 (FW15), and has painted in plein air competitions in Texas, Montana and New England. She is currently featured in a two-person exhibition at the Bigfork Art and Culture Center, Art in the Time of COVID: Oil Paintings by Marnell Brown and Sunnie LeBlanc, on view through August 7.

 

 

DECEMBER 11, 2021

Crits and Croissants with artist Gini Ogle

Saturday, December 11, 10:30 am-noon
Members: $5 Non-members: $10

Calling all artists! If you are ready to take your work to the next level, join us at the Hockaday to meet other artists and receive professional feedback on your work!

Gini Ogle, an accomplished oil painter, is a fourth generation Montanan. She was chosen in 2017 for the Artist Wilderness Connection Residency Program with the Hockaday, Bob Marshall Wilderness, Swan Valley Connections and Flathead National Forest.  in 2020 she was selected for the exhibition and fundraiser A Timeless Legacy: Women Artists of Glacier National Park. She currently lives and works in the Flathead Valley.
 
Please Bring one or two recent works to share.
 
 
 

APRIL 9, 2022

Crits and Croissants with artist Karen Leigh

Saturday, Apil 9, 10:30 am-noon
Members: $5 Non-members: $10

Calling all artists! If you are ready to take your work to the next level, join us at the Hockaday to meet other artists and receive professional feedback on your work!

 

Past Critiques

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