Joe & Wilma's Excellent Adventures

 Friday, June 21, 2024

Charles M. Russell Museum

We haven’t recovered from yesterday’s hard day, so we took it easy this morning. But eventually we got our day started, and toured the Charles Russell Museum. I have always liked his work, his paintings are breath-taking, and I especially like the bronzes, of which there were several on display. I took pictures of both but photos just don’t do them justice.  And I did not know that he used all mediums -- bronze, oil, watercolor, and pen and ink.  There were also some items in his studio that he whittled.  He was a very talented man!

The grounds outside of the Museum are very nice, park-like, with several huge animal statues in front.  We love these.  I didn't take a picture of all of them, but these were some of our favorites (especially the bears).  We are hoping to see these in real life in the next few days.

The same with his paintings.  I didn't take pictures of all of them, but these were some of our favorites.  The photos don't do justice to the paintings or the bronzes.

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 Although not a Charlie Russell, this was Joe's favorite.

There were paintings and drawings by other artists on display, as well and exhibits and artifacts of that time period.

We really liked this display of carriages.  We thought Collins could expand his talents in this direction after he finishes all of his woodwork on construction equipment.

There were two buffalo artworks here, and the plaque on one stated that this project that been started by this Museum.  So I looked that up.

"For the Plains Indians of Montana, the buffalo was more than a food source; it was sacred. Many since have come to regard the animal as an icon of the West, including cowboy artist Charlie Russell, who regularly depicted bison in his works and even adopted a buffalo skull as his insignia. For these reasons, in 2003, the C.M. Russell Museum launched the Buffalo Hunt Project—a celebration of art, history, and culture. More than two dozen fiberglass bison were brought to life by local artists to create unique three- dimensional artworks.

To this day, most of the Buffalo Hunt Project sculptures (including the following) can be found throughout Great Falls, each one serving as a reminder of our Western heritage and of the artistic talents that can be found beneath the Big Sky."

I love these kinds of things, and still hope to chase them all down.  But here are the two at the Museum.

 This the other side of Pishkun.  I don't know why the color is so different (I guess the light changed when I moved around).  But anyway, this depicts the buffalo jump.  I thought it was awesome.

His home and studio were also on the grounds.  The wood cabin was his studio.

This was his home, a very nice residence for the time which was restored a few years ago.  They tried to match everything as best they could.  There was a buffet with drawers to you could pull out and see the various floor coverings and wallpapers that had been used over the years.  

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We probably spent about 2 hours here.  My knee was so bad that I could hardly walk to the Jeep. I did get a picture of another one of the buffalo around town.  That's still on our to-do list (at least my to-do list, and Joe is my driver.)

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We went out for pizza tonight and Joe thought we deserved dessert, so we risked ordering something we were unfamiliar with -- a slice of huckleberry cheesecake.

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It was almost too pretty to eat, but it was delicious.  

Another day in the books.  Tomorrow.will be our "get ready to travel" day so we have some work to do.  The temperature was 79 today, with a chance of thunderstorms tonight.  Tomorrow it's supposed to get up to 82, but Sunday is forecast at 92, so it is definitely time to move on.  Glacier National Park is forecast at 66 the next two days, and 60 on Monday.  Nanner nanner!!!

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