Painter LR Montgomery celebrates beauty of the region through artwork, donations

Painter LR Montgomery’s granddaughters often ask him the same question over and over again: “Grandpa, what are we doing?”

Though his granddaughters are more interested in the plans for the day when they ask the question, Montgomery has taken to asking that same question to the conservation organizations he partners with.

“What are we doing? What can we accomplish together working as a team?”

A lifelong fan of the outdoors, Montgomery donates a portion of what he earns from sales of his landscape paintings to conservation organizations around the region. Things are no different for “Our Amazing NW Natural Areas: Paintings by LR Montgomery,” on view at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture’s Helen South Alexander Gallery through July 29.

Each of the 17 paintings in the exhibit, which cover such local landscapes as High Drive Bluff, the Saltese Wetlands, Slavin Conservation Area, the Spokane River and Turnbull Wildlife Refuge, benefits a regional organization.

In the past, Montgomery worked with printmaking, etching and illustration. He turned to landscape painting after hearing two things. The first was his wife telling him he was starting to breathe funny from the fumes of the etching process. The second was a statistic from an art magazine: 80% of all paintings sold are landscapes.

“When you sit in your small studio and you’re painting things from your brain, and you’re going to make a psychological impulse kind of thing for the whole art community, what are the chances of finding somebody that’s just as crazy as you are to say ‘This is it?’ ” he said. “I figured I would go out and paint.”

During these plein air sessions, passersby would peek over Montgomery’s shoulder as he worked, eventually asking if he could paint their view. One painting led to another, which led to another, which led to Montgomery building connections with those in charge of protecting the areas he was painting.

In his impressionistic landscapes, Montgomery manages to capture the movement of the water rushing by him or the wind rustling the tall grass on the canvas. There is a brightness to his sunny day paintings that seems to come from within the canvas itself, and the colors of the plants and flowers he paints are not just accurately represented but amplified.

“A lot of times, when you’re painting, all of a sudden you realize there’s something more beautiful right behind you,” he said. “And this is life in general. We tend to remember past things, and we’re fearful of the future.”

At this point in our conversation, a family from Coeur d’Alene walked into the gallery with friends visiting from Arizona to look at Montgomery’s work. He shared his experiences painting Tubbs Hill and the Saltese Wetlands, the latter of which the couple were pleasantly surprised to see represented in his work after taking a recent visit there themselves.

Later in our interview, another group entered the gallery. He gave them the same introduction. “Hi, I’m the artist. These are all natural areas around Spokane. Every show I do, I try to generate money for the Riverkeepers, the Lands Council.”

This time, a landscape of Rocks of Sharon caught the group’s eye, with one visitor saying Montgomery’s work reminded him a lot of his grandfather’s own paintings.

Montgomery enjoys chatting with visitors and is quick to hone in on where they’re from or what natural areas they like to visit.

“I really want people to see the joy of living here,” he said.

No matter if it’s a cloudy day or sunny day, a forest or river, mountain or field, Montgomery will find that joy, capturing a scene in such a way that viewers can’t help but appreciate the beauty of the landscape, sometimes seeing a familiar area in a new light because of Montgomery’s treatment of the location.

Montgomery said he knows how difficult it is for nonprofits to raise money, so if he can share the beauty of the region while also raising money for organizations that look after those beautiful areas, it’s a win-win and motivates him to stay close to his paints and brushes.

The organizations supported by this exhibition are the Spokane Mountaineers, Spokane Urban Nature, the Riverside State Park Foundation, Inland Northwest Land Conservancy, the Audubon Society, the Lands Council, the Dishman Hills Conservancy, Spokane Riverkeeper, the Friends of Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, Salish School of Spokane, Spokane Conservation District, the Friends of Palisades, the Friends of the Little Spokane River Valley and the Friends of the Bluff.

“Sometimes artists struggle because they don’t know where they’re going, but I know where I’m going,” he said. “My next painting is my best one, so I go out every day and paint.”