The Dog Days of Summer

Just a quick entry this week, I'm afraid. Summer traffic has been quite good, and Montana is not on fire yet, though we all fear it's on the horizon... Still, we've been graced with lots of shoppers this season, and the prevailing mood in Bigfork is great - people are having fun, the weather is finally cooperating, and Flathead Lake is spectacular. All ingredients for a perfect summer in Bigfork!

Two upcoming events of note - first, this Friday, July 30th, is our Last Friday evening here in Bigfork. Shops, galleries and restaurants are offering snacks and specials from 5 to 8 p.m. to entice you to mark your calendar and spend the evening in Bigfork. Mark your calendar with our slogan - Last Fridays are Every Last Friday of Every Month!

Next, August 6th is our annual Artist's Reception for Nancy Cawdrey. This marks the kickoff to the Bigfork Festival of the Arts, a two day art fair in Bigfork that closes the streets and brings thousands of visitors to the Village. We have several new paintings for Nancy's show, and we invite you to join us from 5 to 8 p.m. to have a nosh and enjoy the new pieces. There are two fantastic Glacier Park paintings to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Glacier National Park. And, there's a painting of Roxie, done from this photo:

It is, of course, my favorite Nancy Cawdrey painting EVER! and, we got to use the pink glitter frame again - stop by to see it!

Jelly Belly Bus Comes to Bigfork!

Today was a SWEET day in the Village - the Jelly Belly Bus came to town! The owners of Jelly Belly have a summer home in the Lakeside/Rollins area, and they worked with the owners of S.M. Bradford and Co. to have their tour bus spend the day on Electric Avenue.

Several area businesses participated, putting up signs and banners, and some (like Frame of Reference) had drawings and door prizes that were Jelly Belly themed. The Jelly Belly crew gave away free samples all day, and the highlight for most of the small children was the "Tasting Wheel" - you spun a wheel that told you what color bean to sample, and in that bin were two flavors that looked similar but didn't taste at all alike. For example, Blueberry was mixed up with Toothpaste, and you didn't know what you were getting until you tasted. We heard rumors of Skunk flavored beans, and Christine's personal favorite was Pencil Shavings - not that she was brave enough to taste it...

The Jelly Belly Beetle was here, too.

Our contest was to guess the number of Jelly Bellys used to make the mat for this spectacular photo of Roxie. Email a guess if you'd like - we'll entertain entries through tomorrow afternoon!

The afternoon was supposed to end with Jelly Belly Martinis for the adults, but the flavoring agents were mistakenly left off the bus, much to our dismay! Ah, well - we probably shouldn't have started thinking about Martinis at noon anyway...

Thanks, Jelly Belly, and thanks to Donna Shanahan Interiors and the Emmerts of S.M. Bradford for putting this fun day together!

Clint Walker Opening at Piney Creek Interiors

We closed early this past Friday and headed up to Whitefish to attend a gallery opening for Clint Walker, Editor-in-Chief of Flathead Living Magazine and photographer extraordinaire. We've represented Clint here in the gallery for about a year now; his photographs are much admired and have sold quite well for us. This is a bit of a surprise, not because Clint isn't a talented photographer, but because selling photographs is actually a little difficult.

People tend to look at photos and say, "Hey, that's cool. I could do that." With the advent of better and better digital cameras, much of the technical skill required to take an attractive photograph is done for you now. But honestly, it's all about the composition, and that's where Clint really excels. His vision is unique, and people admire his work, rather than thinking they could duplicate it. Take Buffalo River, for example:

Anybody can get a snapshot of buffalo, particularly around Yellowstone National Park where they're about as common as mosquitoes. But maybe one in a thousand can capture the interplay of light, the scale and the compositional framing to make the buffalo truly appear like the magnificent creature that it is. Anybody can take a picture, but Clint's photographs are truly Fine Art.

Piney Creek Interiors in Whitefish just moved into a new 6000 square foot retail space downtown on Baker Avenue, right next to Coffee Traders. The location is a huge improvement, and Dena and her staff have filled the showroom with a great collection of furnishings and accessories, but the huge "bonus room" upstairs is the gem, so far as I'm concerned. It's a large open loft-like space with high ceilings and soaring windows, and frankly, it's a great place for a party! The space is currently filled with a unique collection of Clint's photos - he's done some really innovative printing with metalized papers and unusual mounting, and he let us go wild on the framing. We're particularly proud of the frame we came up for the photo o Clint and Alisha's daughter, Beau.

Recently featured on the cover of Flathead Living, Beau is shown holding her first fish ever, wearing a red and white checked gingham shirt and fishing gear that would make her daddy proud. We framed her with an Italian lacquer moulding that exactly matches her shirt, and surrounded it with a distressed white frame that exactly duplicated the boards of the dock. The end result is perfect, if I do say so myself. One woman told Clint towards the end of the evening that she'd pay ANYTHING to own the photograph. That's a pretty good sign....

Friday's opening was a great event - loads of people, mountains of sushi and accolades all around.

This coming Friday night - July 16th - marks the official Grand Opening of Piney Creek Interiors, so Clint will be there again, signing photos and working the room as only he can do. Though it's hard for me as a loyal Bigforker, I must admit that Whitefish will be the place to be tomorrow night!