The Livingston Depot Museum will open its 2015 season on Saturday, May 23 at 10 a.m. with its regular rail and Yellowstone history displays complemented by the special exhibit “TRAIN IN ART: Train + Depot = Light, Energy, Motion.”  The museum is operated by the Livingston Depot Foundation, which celebrates its 30th year in 2015.
 
“TRAIN IN ART,” a contemporary view of the Western rails making its debut in 2015, is collaboration by Livingston Artists Sheila Hrasky and Tandy Miles Riddle and represents the Depot’s first train art show by female artists.
 
Giving a historically male subject a female perspective, the two plein-air artists have painted at the Depot for years.  Tandy initially focused more on the ornate historic architecture, calling it one of her favorite buildings, where Sheila tends to favor the train activity itself.  Both were inspired and influenced by the interplay of movement, light, color, and shadow with the Depot and adjacent rail activity.
 
“There is a lot of play in Tandy Riddle’s raw and unaffected paintings,” commented Greg Keeler.  “Instead of capturing imagery, she releases it in bold, direct brushstrokes on broad canvasses that reveal a confidence in color, line, and form that can only come from years of experience.  For those of us familiar with the Livingston Depot, its crossings and its trains, there is the added treat of seeing the familiar defamiliarized in vivid expressions that convey a light, energy and motion only Tandy and her brushes can improvise.”
 
Sheila celebrates life living by the rails as she captures landscapes in watercolor and oil.  “The rails brought the train and gave life to the town,” she said.  “Taking the most vibrant parts of a location I create a simplified and engaging image.  These pictures are then referenced and used as building blocks for larger oil paintings focusing on the deconstruction of a subject using shaped musical instruments.”
 
Seonaid Campbell, an area writer and filmmaker, amplified, “Their confluent passion to paint runs like parallel tracks while their differing styles inspire one another…TRAIN IN ART confirms that like a passing train, art too moves us.”
 
The museum plans to hold an evening artists’ reception for TRAIN IN ART with Hrasky and Riddle on Thursday, June 18th at 7 p.m. The event will feature live music, hors d’oeuvres, and wine tasting from the up and coming Gourmet Cellar Uncorked.
 
The Depot Museum’s popular ongoing main exhibit “Rails Across the Rockies: A Century of People and Places” introduces visitors to the rich history of railroading in Montana with special attention to the Northern Pacific and its central role in the opening of Yellowstone, America’s first national park, through Livingston beginning in the 1880s. In addition to the main exhibit, the museum also presents “The Livingston Depot in History and Architecture,” “Film in Montana: Moviemaking under the Big Sky,” selections from “On Track:  The Railroad Photography of Warren McGee,” and TRAIN IN ART.  
 
The Depot Museum exhibits in 2015 will run from Saturday, May 23 through Sunday, September 13. Depot Museum hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. There is a nominal admission. Additional information can be obtained by contacting the Depot office at (406) 222-2300 or visiting www.livingstondepot.org.