Valerie Montague

Tiburon, CA

“In Tiburon, the fog and other atmospheric conditions provide wondrous opportunities to literally paint the air. My work tries to capture that on canvas.”

Valerie Montague is a painter who grew up in New York City and Ridgefield, Connecticut. As a teenager, she studied with Robert Beverly Hale at the renowned Art Student’s League. Valerie travelled the world before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. There she fell in love with the natural beauty of the atmospheric landscapes visible from her Tiburon home.

In 2008, she moved to Greenwich, Connecticut and returned to her love of pastel painting and studied with Tom Brenner of the Silvermine Arts Center and Rae Smith at the Katonah Art Center. She turned to oil painting at the suggestion of Tom Brenner. At Silvermine, Valerie began painting abstract landscapes with David Dunlop, the creator of the Emmy Award winning PBS series, Landscapes Through Time.

While living in Greenwich, Valerie was influenced by the rich history of the American Impressionists, particularly the work of John Henry Twachtman, who once lived nearby and frequently painted the Horseneck Creek, a waterway that ran in front of Valerie’s home. She also painted at Weir Farm Art Center, the only National Park Service unit dedicated to American painting and the former home of J. Alden Weir.

In 2016, Valerie returned to Tiburon, California, where she creates abstract landscapes and modern portraiture in oil that are both atmospheric and tonal. Her more recent works include acrylics which begin with the randomness of dripping, pouring and tilting techniques. By following the paint, she creates modern landscapes, still lifes and portraits.
Valerie’s work has been juried into and awarded at multiple shows including the prestigious 96th, 97th and 98th Annual Juried Exhibition at the Bendheim Gallery, Greenwich, CT. Her oil and acrylic paintings can be seen May 4-5 during the 2019 Marin Open Studios at the Tiburon Art and Garden Center and on line at ValMontagueFineArt.com