Notecard featuring "Bighorns, Glacier National Park" by Joe Abbrescia (1936-2005), Hockaday Museum of Art Permanent Collection
Notecard is 5 x 7 inches, includes envelope, printed on glossy cardstock
Includes the following quote on the back of the card: "The call of the mountains is a real call. Throw off the impediments of civilization. Go out to the West and ride the mountain trails. Throw out your chest and breathelook across green valleys to wild peaks where mountain sheep stand impassive on the edge of space. Then the mountains will get you. You will go back. The call is a real call." Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958), author, excerpt from The Call of the Mountains: Vacations in Glacier National Park, Great Northern Railway brochure, c. 1922.
Joe Abbrescia was born in New York in 1936. As a teenager he began attending art classes at the Chicago Art Institute and completed his formal training at Chicago's American Academy of Art under the direction of William Mosby. During his tour in the U. S. Army, he served as an illustrator in Anchorage Alaska, and it was there that he began teaching art, as well. Following that he worked as a commercial artist in a major art studio in Chicago.
In 1965 he founded the Village Art School in Skokie, Illinois. His unique teaching methods and ability to communicate resulted in escalating enrollments. He remained the Director of the School until 1976, during which time he continued to teach and paint and sell his work in the Chicago area and to establish a market in the West.
Abbrescia participated in art shows and was represented by the Ace Powell Art Gallery in Kalispell, Montana. Following many painting trips to Montana, and captivated by the beauty of Glacier National Park, in 1976 he moved with his wife and two sons to Kalispell to be a full time painter. A harsh winter sent him to Scottsdale, Arizona for a time, but Montana called him back.
He was a painter of a diversity of subjects, from landscapes to cityscapes, from figurative to wildlife. His passion to capture on canvas the beauty of Monet's Gardens, the majesty and grandeur of our National Parks, and the excitement and energy of city streets, has taken him around the world. He received numerous awards for his work, including Best of Show, Artist's Choice and People's Choice at the C.M. Russell Museum Show, Best of Show at the Eighth Annual Museum of Native American Cultures Western Art Show and Auction, Artist of the Year from the American Royal Western Art Association, and the People's Choice at the Second Biennial Artists for Open Space Show.
In the March, 2002 CM Russell Auction of original art, Abbrescia's work, "High Way Travelers" came in as the third highest seller of the show. His painting, Almost There won double honors at the 2004 CMR Auction, taking Best of Show & Peoples Choice.
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