Imagine Montana: The Artful Joy of Jennifer Lowe-Anker

Jennifer Lowe has combined the landscapes, animals, and the people of her native Montana with a unique approach to painting. Born in Missoula, she spent parts of her childhood working in the fields of her grandparents’ homestead property. She uses livestock markers to render in vivid color the whimsical images of her imagination. Lowe constructs her own frames and decorates them with a folk art quality, each of which carries an element of the painting that it is made for. Jennifer began using the oil paintsticks in 1985 while a student at Montana State University. Since then her work has been shown alongside such well-known artists as Thorn Ross, Howard Post, Larry Pirnie, and Donna Howell Sickels.h5

Your artistic approach is wonderfully striking — colorful, fanciful, and vibrant. What does that say to you about yourself as an artist?

I love color and light and my work reflects the bright clear light that we have here in our dry mountainous Montana climate. I simplify my images of wildlife, birds, or landscapes with the bright color of livestock markers, and I like to emphasize shadows and contrast. I have a proud affection for Montana as my great-grandparents settled here as ranchers in the 1870s. The open space, diversity of wildlife, and rural lifestyle in Montana are unique and precious. My grandmother who was born and grew up on the ranch loved every wild creature. Wild places like Montana are disappearing around the planet. I want to celebrate them.

Your work often teeters between the whimsical and sublime. Is this a conscious effect you are trying to produce?

Yes. I love to portray the ideal or impossible with regard to wildlife and western myth but some of the images have serious messages about saving species or caring for what we have. As a kid, I liked to daydream that I could go live in the wilderness and tame the wolves and ride on a moose or a bear instead of a horse. I render those innocent dreams sometimes. I did ride horses, explored on foot, skied, and climbed mountains, fished, and rode bicycles along rivers and over passes. As a teen, I bucked bales, drove tractors, herded cows, and later worked for the forest service in seasonal jobs, surveying roads, and thinning timber. Then, becoming a mountaineer, I continued to be out in nature. I still love to be out, to hike and ski and ride or even garden.

One cannot visit your artwork without wondering how the death of your husband (alpinist Alex Lowe) has informed your work. What can you tell us about that?

I lost Alex in 1999. I don’t know that his death really changed the evolution of my work but perhaps there is more emotion present than there once was. The imagery has become more detailed than it was 20 years ago. I sometimes portray cowgirls doing daring tricks or women in the wilds with animals around them. These images have a feeling that I think empowers women. It evokes the carefree and confident feeling that I had racing my horse across a field at the age of 15 or standing on top of a mountain at 25 or facing life as a widow.

How do you hope your artwork impacts the viewer?

My hope is that my work will bring some joy to people or make them smile but I also want them to think about what is important in the image. There is so much sadness, despair, and loss in the world I want to portray something that is beautiful, fun, or happy. I try to create an image that people might want to live with or that might inspire them in some way to care for our wild places. The human footprint on Earth is a large one. We could be better stewards of this planet.

What are you currently working on?

I’ve recently been working on some images inspired by time spent in Nepal. Like Montana, the colors in Nepal are vibrant and beautiful with high clear air, sharp shadows, and distinct values. There are wonderful birds and animals, such as yaks, snow leopards, and donkeys, and of course, mountains. I showed the paintings in Santa Fe in November and will show them in Telluride in May and then NYC in June. So, I guess you could say that I am expanding my subject matter a bit but in the same style, where animals and birds are the key players.