Distinctly Montana Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.distinctlymontana.com/i/20776
You Are What You Eat Although Loomis calls himself a realist painter, he adds “not in the sense of showing details of individual hairs. I keep my work loose and abstract to show movement.” His works reflect an intense interest in color, spatial arrange- ment, and movement. A single painting may contain multiple views of an area, moving from an intimate detail foreground to a broader view. “This is much like what occurs as we view our daily experiences,” he says. “We ALTHOUGH LOOMIS CALLS HIMSELF A REALIST PAINTER, HE ADDS “NOT IN THE SENSE OF SHOWING DETAILS OF INDIVIDUAL HAIRS. I KEEP MY WORK LOOSE AND ABSTRACT TO SHOW MOVEMENT.” focus on a detail, and then look out more broadly over the richness of our environment.” Exploring multiple perspec- tives and bridging these across multiple panels to preserve continuity and mood is a painterly style borrowed from Northern Renaissance artists such as Van Eyck and Breugel. The five panels Loomis uses in The Concert traces an illusionary path of music with a flow of lines, colors that shift from warm to cool, a repetitive echo of shapes that move from understood thorns to surprising snake-like ap- paritions. “I wanted to capture the image of the music, an old concept put into my language,” Loomis explains. “At International Guitar Night in Bozeman I watched five gui- tarists play. The result was The Concert. Each panel could be abstract, but I better communicate with my viewer if I have a recognizable image.” The companion poem, also entitled The Concert, is fantasy. It can be viewed on his Web site: www.cloomisstudio.com. This kind of experimentation with paint and words keeps Loomis’ work fresh and evolving after 35 years as an artist, and 20 of those as a poet. Along the way he discovered central Montana, then Lewistown, where a cold clear spring creek flows. Four mountain ranges ring the grass and wheat lands where an easterly wind blows. To the north is the harsh, rugged beauty of the Missouri Breaks. He describes his artist’s life in the heart of Montana this way: “Taken to- gether, my commu- nity, the mountains, the creek, and the eroded folds of the Breaks, these provide an anchor and act as a profound catalyst for my work.” Cathy Moser writes about western history, lifestyles, and the outdoors from her home in central Montana’s Judith Mountains. 40 DISTINCTLY MONTANA • WINTER 2011