Join us Thursday, September 1st, 6-9PM for our featured exhibit of new Kelly West originals.  Bears & other colorful animal impressions (but mostly bears!) will grace our walls for the next Whitefish Gallery Nights & the month of September & beyond!  Live music provided by Old Sap, as well as live-streaming with Whitefish Community Radio.  Also, join Kelly in a collaborative painting on site!!  For more information call 406-863-ARTS or log onto http://www.whitefishgallerynights.org!

Kelly West was born in Foley, Alabama in February of 1985. Growing up, Kelly loved to make art. Never too interested in what had been done before, she loved the process and action of art making and the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen next. Kelly learned to love portrait making watching her father draw impressionist portraits in contour. She saw portraits as a fun and a natural way to capture family members on paper. Kelly moved to Montana ten years ago to snowboard with her best friend and to live in the mountains. She has worked in her art daily here in Whitefish at her Studio home and last year concentrated on oil as her happy medium, with her first show at The Walking Man Frame Shop and Gallery in 2015. In this style, Kwest hints on movement represented by cubist shapes and how they are developed on the canvas. Colorful impressions determine proportions of the subject throughout the making, giving it a layered and textured look. With animals for inspiration, Kelly looks to show life in the color, vibrancy and spirit of the animal. In the future Kelly expects to keep her work experimental and hopes to continue growing in her art. When Kwest is not painting she is drumming for DogHouse, an improv ensemble that performs at The Red Room monthly.

“Watching the painting come together, problem solving, fixing mistakes, openness, awareness, what the practice teaches you, these things are why I show up daily!” -KWest