Art Studio & Home
Como Peaks (The Three Sisters) as seen from our home and studio, Felicity. These majestic peaks are part of the Bitterroot Mountain Range, Montana. The range creates a high rugged border between Idaho and Montana. The Bitterroot Valley is nestled between the Bitterroot Mountains and the Sapphire Mountain Range; the Bitterroot River serpentines like a twisting snake through the agricultural valley.
We have expanded our studio space. During the pandemic, we have built a much larger studio for Lisa and me. There are about 950 square feet divided, separated by a narrow storage area.
Our home and art studios
Our new studio, exterior, front faces east. Douglas’ studio on the south end, Lisa’s on the north. Studios are separated by a narrow storage room 2022.
Panoramic view of my art studio
My busy art studio, the intaglio etching press occupies a 3 x 12 feet floor space. See some original mixed-process prints…
Looking east in my art and printmaking studio, perpetually organizing and working on new printmaking plates for a new series
Artist and printmaker, Douglas E. Taylor with his hand-built intaglio etching press. He designed and built this press in 1991. It is motorized and occupies three by twelve feet of studio floor space. The design accommodates his special needs as he works in a wide range of printmaking processes.
The prints are printed under three specialized wool blankets, cushioning, impressing the inked printing plate, and the soft rag paper together. The ink is transferred from the printing plate to the paper, creating a print. For each impression, the plate is re-inked. The resistant pressure between the rollers is similar to old-fashioned wringer-washing machine rollers.
Summer flowers in front of Montana art studio, 2023.
From the studio toward our neighbors’ pastures, October, 2023
Lisa and Annie walking down the private lane to home and studio, Hamilton, Montana
Coming out of the art studio on a winter night, I felt deep gratitude for living where I live, having what I have, and sharing it with who I have to share it…those things that move us, seen and unseen.
A moose near our home-studio, December 2020, this was the first time we had seen a moose near the property after living here almost nine years. They are more common in the valley in various other locations. They have a 15-20 square mile home-roaming area.
photo by our neighbor Vinod Nair
Montana home and art studio…early winter 2019
In the front yard, summer 2019: Lisa and Douglas Taylor
In 2008, living at Lake Tahoe, I wrote a poetic affirmation, titled Felicity, about finding and making a new home, somewhere unknown.
In 2012, two years after moving to Montana, I found the one-acre property that I called Felicity, creating a home and an art studio.
Now I share it with Lisa, my beloved artist wife; we are working on our mutual vision of what it can be and how it expresses us and who we are. I’ve modified the poem through the years and most recently below. Sentiments and vision are more clear every year. Somehow my heart and spirit found my way to Felicity. Felicity is defined as happiness and bliss, especially as it pertains to art and literature.
Felicity
There is a lane that leads to
a home called Felicity
A place of inspiration
and a way of being
Open to the sky and the seasons
Where creativity flows
Where dreams grow like flowers from a painting
and a song from the breeze
When rain and sunshine shower
and fall like snow
making a home near the trees
Where love can color and the garden nourish
The stars cover sleep
and comfort and peace flourish
We come home to Felicity
A place to play our hearts
A pulse to share
and live the trust
Making our art
and dancing with the child in us
Felicity is an acre to be quiet on
and space enough to think out loud
surrounded by pastoral pastures
and a valley of changing clouds
We walk to the little village
We follow the river to town
and when we go away and we return
we come back to that look in our eyes
and that home again sound
There are hawks and great birds
that draw through the blue
We are grateful for the rural-music
and when nature takes its cue
We live with felicity
at our little home
one line at a time
each day a rhyme in our little poem
Douglas E. Taylor 2008, 2020 ©
To read more of my poetry, see my Writing & Poetry page.
Walking in the summer neighborhood with Annie
One of the Bitterroot Mountains, Montana, as seen from art studio and home
Hammock in the cottonwoods
An active red-tail hawk nest in the cottonwoods near Felicity. The nest and its inhabitants are subjects of a series of writings, inspired by my experiences and observations. The nest is at least 40 years old and has perpetually been occupied by generations of red-tail.
I had the privilege of witnessing the second male hawk that I have witnessed in this aerie take his first flights, being instructed by both his parents. A couple of years later he found a mate to share this nest he inherited from his parents. Then a couple of years later the couple finally had a couple of surviving offspring. The parents have flown off, once again abanding the nest, leaving it to the offspring. The two siblings shared the nest for probably a month then…one day there was only one. I am researching what may have happened to the missing hawk.
We anticipate the next chapter in the life of this nest…this long natural story continues. I am writing a series of observations and experiences with these most interesting neighbors.
My dear departed Denver in the cottonwood retreat
Mule deer are among the frequent visitors to the Montana home and art studio. There are also white-tail deer, Rocky Mountain elk, moose, red fox, coyote, raccoon, skunk, marmot, bobcat, bald eagles, sandhill cranes, great blue herons, pileated woodpeckers, flickers, downy woodpeckers, California quail, wild turkey, turkey buzzards, several species of owl, Canada geese, and at least two-dozen species of other birds during the warmer months and of course our resident red-tail hawks.
American bald eagle in the nearby cottonwood trees as seen from our veranda, Christmas day, 2020.
Iris in summer
One of the many seasonal displays of our European Mountain Ash tree, happily growing for decades
Artists, Douglas and Lisa Taylor during the pandemic in Montana, 2020
All summer long these black maple leaves are very dark green, appearing almost black. This golden rust color explodes during autumn.
Lisa and Douglas Taylor, 2020
Annie, Lisa and Douglas Taylor, along the Bitterroot River in the Bitterroot Valley with the Bitterroot Mountains, 2021