Freedom Comes with a Cost

As Veterans Day is approaching the gallery that I actively hang my artwork at is presenting a special exhibit in honor of our nation's veterans.  This piece is 8x10 but will be matted to 11x14 in time to entered into the show. I used pen and ink, watercolor and colored pencils to get the rich colors of the flag and purple heart.

This piece is special because it is a tribute to my husbands uncle.  For many years now I have had a photo of this young man in his military uniform hanging on display in our living room.  I always made a point to talk about him to my own sons on Memorial Day and Veterans Day so that they would remember that their grandmother had a brother that she loved dearly but would only live to see his 19th year.  His family didn't even know that he was in Europe when the telegram was delivered to the Kopriva Hardware Store in Powell Wyoming.  Bruce P. Kopriva was killed in action on July 18, 1944 in France. See more details at Bruce P. Kopriva (findagrave.com)

"Freedom Comes with a Cost"- A tribute to all veterans and my husband's Uncle Bruce who died in WWII in France at only 19 years old.   I used his actual purple heart and dog tag as reference to do this piece.

More Cowbells!

I am so happy that I received word this morning from one of my cowbell collectors in Columbia Falls, Montana that these newest custom ordered cowbells are exactly what she had in mind.  With custom orders, you always have to worry that there might just be something they don't like or want changed.  Not the case with this order and so I'm going to be finishing these bells up with a coat of varnish and get them ready to put in a shipping box so they are ready to mail later this week.  

I am so blessed to have people who appreciate my artwork.  A quote from the collector herself just this morning says it all.  "I more than LOVE them Julie, I treasure your "souls" work ! You sing through your paintings and my special room is coming together quite nicely with your BELLS as my signature pieces! Such a peaceful place to be, am loving it, will send you photos when complete! Thank you once again for all your work and effort, I truly appreciate you! Love from Montana, Big Sky Country! Gateway to Glacier National Park! "

These make great gifts and are an affordable way to give art.  If you are interested in having a unique creation of your own, just contact me and I would be happy to discuss the design you have in mind.  I ship them anywhere in the continental US for only $65!

If you are interested in seeing my other works, please check out my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com

Hand Painted Cowbells

Just Another Snowy Day

Beautiful Kawich Mountains East of Tonoapah, Nevada

Clifford Mine- just off US6 before you head up into the mountains to Bellehelen

The ruins of Bellehelen

I'm the type of person that you could classify a planner...I often stress over the details and worry too much about the small things in life.  You can probably say I have a need to be in control of my environment.   Occasionally, God just steps in a throws me a curve ball..or in this case... should I say a SNOW BALL.


For months, I have reserved vacation time to add to the already 3 day Memorial Day weekend so that we could make the trip to our favorite remote camping spot far in the Kawich Mountains, east of Tonopah, Nevada. I don't know many people that would drive of 245 miles just to spend a couple of days of solitude and relaxation but that is what Brad and I like to do.

The camping spot is perfect for us and to our great pleasure we found the creek that has been dry on our other visits, flowing with water from the snow melt and so we were greeted with a symphony of bull frogs.  For a Missouri girl, transplanted to the Nevada desert this was sheer music to my ears.  My artist eyes drank in the beauty of the mountains, rocks, trees and abundant wildflowers.  Painting for me, in that setting was pure joy and I found myself hesitant to stop even though I was obviously getting sun burnt.  But it was only Saturday and I had another full day to enjoy my new plein air experience, so I made plans to spend the next day painting at the ruins of Bellehelen ghost town. 

But now to the God sized snow ball part of my adventure.  First kink in a perfect camping trip is a sick rat terrier throwing up all over the camper at midnight.  There is just something about sharing small quarters that bring a family close together but when you are in a 23 x 8 foot box and 1/2 of it is covered with greasy dog vomit you find yourself questioning many things in life.  Like, why didn't I secure that bacon grease in a better location?  Why didn't I put the dog in the crate like I do every night?  Why did I bring the dog in the first place?  Okay...I can deal with this.  I just cover stuff up and wash the disgusting stuff of my right foot because I didn't have my glasses on and stepped on the wrong 1/2 of the camper floor.  Just a little extra effort on my part and I'll be painting away again before too long. 

The sunrise found me with a resolve to tackle the tasks before me and get that camper whipped into shape so that my day would be as I had planned.  But low and behold..I open the camper door to find that 6 inches of wet, fluffy snow was covering everything.  Now I might be from Missouri but I moved to Nevada when I was only 16, so driving in the snow is something I have only experienced twice and both times the experience wasn't exactly positive.  I was frankly, very nervous and the idea that we were beyond any human assistance and we're now faced with the possibility of having some real issues to get back to the safety of civilization. It was hard not to think about how just a few weeks prior, the news reported the story of a Canadian woman that had been stuck in her van in Northern Nevada for 7 weeks living only on melted snow, trail mix and candy. 

I felt the panic welling up and I just said a prayer and decided that I just needed to trust my Montana husband to get us out of this situation that we found ourselves in.  With the wonders of 4 wheel drive, my husband was able to pull us all to safety.  This experience makes be mindful of the scripture found in II Samuel 23:20  "Benahiah, son of Jehoiada, a VALIANT fighter from Kabzeel (is that in Montana), performed GREAT exploits.  He struck down Moab's two mightiest warriors.  He also went down into a pit on a SNOWY day and killed a lion."  Brad might not have been a fighter, a warrior or have killed a lion, but he sure was my hero on a Snowy Day!

5-6 inches of fresh snow that fell surprisingly during the night

Heading back to Las Vegas-My Montana husband saves the day!

Let me just share a few of my paintings that have snow as a focal point.  I love to painting snot but as you can see by this story I'm not to fond of spending much time in the cold, wet stuff.  If you like my work and would like to see more, please visit my website at http://www.julietownsendstudio.com/.  These paintings and many more are featured there.