Featured Artist: James Bason

Best known for his serene and contemplative landscape paintings of his native home town of Great Falls and the greater central Montana area, Bason's career as a professional painter began upon his return to Montana after living in Connecticut for almost six years. Since then he has passionately painted what he grew up with not the majestic mountain peaks so common and popular in western art but more often than not the vast open prairie, the windy vista or simply the space in between things a clump of grass, some willows, the clouds of Montana’s big sky. "In my work, I strive to move the viewer and engage them in a quiet conversation not solely based on what my painting depicts or its locale, but by what feeling or mood this image is evoking in them,” he says. “By utilizing color, line, texture and tone I am striving to move beyond a place in time." He holds a BA in Graphic Design with honors from Montana State University at Bozeman, and his work has appeared at various art shows and auctions across Montana.