Cottonwoods & Color: Edd Ender’s West

Cottonwoods & Color features 14 large oil paintings by Livingston, Montana artist Edd Enders. The viewer finds themselves swept across Montana landscapes strewn with cottonwoods, fences and telephone lines. 

 The color and movement in Ender’s work is spellbinding. “My work is inspired by everything around me. As I travel around the West, I see things compositionally; how shapes and colors interact. When a scene moves me—emotionally or visually–I gather information with a sketch and notes. Back in my studio, I use the sketch as a starting place for my oil paintings and choose colors, often abstract, to convey the mood or meaning I want to evoke. 

 My intended statement is often more ominous than my vivid colors suggest. While painting, I focus on composition and fit shapes and colors together like puzzle pieces. I often use iconic imagery like roads, crows, fences, and road signs to add both visual interest and symbolism. A crucial part of my painting process is the time I contemplate the puzzle of my next painting while building, stretching, sizing, and priming canvases. 

I consider myself a contemporary western painter. I’m not interested in portraying the West as it’s commonly idealized with pristine landscapes and romanticized wildlife, cowboys and Indians. I am deeply connected to the western environment where I’ve grown up, worked, and lived. I want to portray human’s inevitable activity and impact on this region. 

 In the bigger picture, I hope that in 100 years people will look at my paintings and learn something about this place and time, as I see it.”

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website