Sometimes, I paint landscapes which are inspired by, but not true to, actual scenes from Montana. I often - but not always - paint these in a ‘looser’ style than when painting an actual scene. Scroll down and take a look! Click on the images to see them in isolation in their entirety.

Above: “Rita” - A Fantasy of Whitetails and Unrequited Love; oil on canvas; 44.5” w x 67.5”, 1998 and 2025, Galen ‘Mac’ McAllister. ($=enquire)

I completed this painting in 1998, decided that I didn’t like it, and started revising it that late that year. My non-art career became incredibly busy about that same time, so I never completed the painting… it just gathered dust. When we moved into our present home, this painting occupied a downstairs hallway for years. Walking past it every day, my wife decided that the doe should be named “Rita”… In July of 2025, I had the opportunity of a short residency at Omerta Arts in which to complete all the revisions - thus the date “1998 + 2025”. This painting is very large (three feet 8.5 inches by five feet 7.5 inches, or 1.13m x 1.72m ) and even larger with its frame; I tried to make it detailed enough to fascinate in close-up while being coherent as a whole composition when viewed from a distance… did I succeed?

Below, a detail…

(below) Another detail from “Rita” - A Fantasy of Whitetails and Unrequited Love. I added in a couple of ‘easter eggs’ for those with enough time to study the painting… this is one.

Below: Conifers in the Mist, oil on canvas, 12” w x 36” h, Galen ‘Mac’ McAllister, 2025 ($200 unframed).

Another painting completed during my short July residency at Omerta. Done fairly loosely in style, but I think it evokes the feeling of being in the high hills on a misty day…

Hills in Morning Fog, oil on canvas, 36”w x 12” h, Galen ‘Mac’ McAllister 2025 ($200 unframed)

This piece is a ‘riff’ from one I painted many many years ago, which in turn was loosely based on seeing early morning fog one spring in the Bridger foothils & Story Hills of Bozeman MT. I was having early morning coffee at the Apple Tree restaurant’s counter (which hasn’t existed for decades now) when I saw the fog enveloping the hills to the east…