Yellowstone Patriarch and still have it read as an honest interpretation of nature."
is nothing like seeing a great painting in person. I've recently visited museums in California, New York, and Russia, and had the opportunity to see paintings by a few of the Masters from the past whose work I find very inspi- rational, including Edgar Payne, John Singer Sargent, Ilya Repin and Isaac Levitan.
Which of your pieces holds your favorite memory for painting?
Bridger Mountain Study
Picking a favorite is a tough one. Bridger Moun- tains Study is an example of a small on-site sketch. I have done hundreds of these and they become a record of the emotional response I had to a particular place, and the starting point for larger ideas.
How do you spend time away from your work? Art is not your typical 9 to 5 job; it's more of a way of life. I have plenty of other interests and don't hesitate to pursue them, but in the process I'm observing the world in a new way. I take more time to really look at things. Fishing our
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local rivers is always time well spent, and I do quite a bit of hiking. The Crazy Mountains and Spanish Peaks are a couple favorite spots for that. I play just enough golf to have an excuse for the grey hair. I like to cook, so a fun evening would include friends over for dinner, maybe rack of lamb and a good cabernet, and later we might grab the guitars.
OK, Greg,…So what do you miss about drywall? The drywall business was a good job for many years. I got to know a lot of good people throughout southwest Montana, and it en- abled me to raise a family in a place I wanted to live, and I was good at it. But I never had a real passion for it.
Art is a whole new ballgame. It can be very frustrating at times, but never dull. It's a con- tinual learning process and sometimes it feels like the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. That can be a bit humbling, but my life is definitely more interesting now.
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