Trailside Galleries is pleased to present Capturing the Light a showcase of new works by Montana landscape and sporting artist Brent Cotton that will be on exhibit throughout the month of September.   Collectors can look forward to viewing new studio paintings as well as smaller plein air works.

Raised on his family's cattle ranch in Idaho, Brent's first lessons in art were taught by his grandmother, a talented watercolorist. He grew up sketching the cowboys and horses he observed every day. In high school an influential instructor encouraged him to pursue a career in art. Cotton attended workshops and studied with some of the best known names in wildlife and western art including renowned western artist Howard Terpning.

Cotton moved to Maui in 1999 and it was there that his work took on a more moody and atmospheric feel. The foggy days he experienced on the slopes of Haleakala volcano combined with the forest fires in Montana where he continued to spend his summers, had a dramatic impact on the direction he would take as an artist. Today he prefers to paint in the Tonalist/Luminist style made popular in the late 1800's, seeking to create works that are mood evoking and have a timeless quality.

An avid outdoorsman Brent can often be found fishing the dark banks and deep pools of the local western rivers close to his home. This passion has led him to focus on sporting art, particularly fly-fishing as a common theme in his work.

Of his newest body of work Cotton remarks, “These new works continue to explore the many moods of my corner of Montana and the surrounding areas. They will showcase the love of the rivers and rural countryside that I'm blessed to be immersed in every day.”

Since 1963, Trailside Galleries of Jackson, Wyoming and Scottsdale, Arizona has been regarded as one of the pre-eminent dealers in American representational art, specializing in a rich and varied collection of works by the leading western, wildlife, figurative, impressionist, and landscape artists in the country. The artist roster includes members of the Cowboy Artists of America, National Academy of Design, Oil Painters of America, Plein-Air Painters of America, Prix De West, Society of Animal Artists, National Sculpture Society and Masters of the American West.

Please contact Kimberly C. Fletcher, Marketing & Communications Director at 307.200.1622 or via email media@trailsidegalleries.com for further information and images.