Distinctly Montana Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.distinctlymontana.com/i/20776
The Concert The scene inspired Brother Wind: Brother wind you are not kind today. You rip the fabric of the sky. You tear our mother’s cloak Leaving the land shivering in her nakedness. You scatter black clouds of tumbling birds Across her barren breasts. Staccato beat their tiny hearts race to stay on course Impatient, you hasten a season’s death. Even the ravens aren’t amused. Loomis makes clear the birds’ struggle against the wind, that the worlds of birds and nature—seem- ingly harmonious and corresponding most of the time—were not so. He presents the same view- point in the companion visual, Birds in Flight. A sky whose colors shift from dark blue to turquoise, to pink, white, and gray, com- mands the upper half of the work. A chaotic tumble of darkly silhouetted birds trying to stay on course flow into the lower half. Clint Loomis searingly plays out the struggle between wind and birds. “Clint has a unique sense of how to con- Birds in Flight Their figures, arrow-like and almost cartoonish, are pressed against naked trees and modicum of sky. Their flight feels urgent. Throughout the work, Loomis’ positioning of colors and shapes www.distinctlymontana.com nect landscapes paintings with the habitats that live within the landscapes,” says Nadine Robertson of the Lewistown Arts Center. “He does this by bringing one of them into focus, into the foreground, such as an ant, hawk, or flower. He is also well known for his paintings depicting admired local buildings, or the gath- ering of friends in the heart of downtown.” Loomis began developing his talent at Northern Illinois Univer- sity where he received Bachelor and Masters of Fine Arts Degrees. Then he spent six months at the Helene Wurlitzer Founda- tion, an artist colony, in Taos, New Mexico. “I was extremely fortunate to study for six years with one of America’s foremost painters, Robert Kabak,” he says. “I can’t give enough credit to Bob who opened the beauty of the West for me and taught me how to slow down, look, and see.” As for other influences, he mentions his father’s love for nature, his mother’s love for beauty, color, and the arts, his youthful years spent in post World War II Europe and in Chicago, with trips to the Chicago Art Institute. 39