Bear Track Art

Ladd’s original watercolor Paria View won the Dixon Ticonderoga Merchandise Award at the Montana Watercolor Society’s national exhibition. See it under The Latest Art. Ladd is now a signature member of the Montana Watercolor Society.

• Kingfisher was sold at the Bigfork Art and Cultural Center in the Montana Watercolor Society’s Watermedia show. Fine art prints are available. The oil painting in this summer’s exhibition at the Jundt Museum, Full Circle, was sold following the closing of the exhibit, but prints are available in two sizes.
• Ladd’s art is always on display at Avenue West Gallery in Spokane, open Thursday to Saturday, 11 am to 4 pm. There are receptions on First Friday, 3:00-7:00.

Bear Track

Why the bear track? Bjørn means bear in Norwegian and Ladd has included a bear track with his signature since the mid-1970s.  

Ladd’s art is available in the form of greeting cards, at Avenue West.  These are printed on high quality paper and are blank inside. Several of Ladd’s most popular prints are also offered as greeting cards, singly or in sets.

Early life:

Ladd Bjorneby was born and raised in Kalispell, Montana. Kalispell has been an art-oriented community for decades.  His mother, a teacher, was a portrait artist and weaver and his father was a jeweler. A neighbor, June Isaacs, taught oil painting in her home.  His godmother, Charlotte Ebeltoft, took him to her cabin often, where he learned to know forest plants and animals. Ladd studied watercolor under Karen Leigh at Flathead Valley Community College in 1976-77.  At Pacific Lutheran University, he studied drawing under Dennis Cox, Walt Tomsic and Ernst Schwidder; and landscape painting under Jens Knudsen, graduating with a B.A. in Biology in 1980.  After two quarters of graduate work at the University of Washington, he withdrew to enter seminary.  In 1983, Ladd’s design was chosen in competition to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.  He designed subsequent logos for the fiftieth anniversary of the Going-to-the-Sun Road and for Glacier’s seventy-fifth anniversary.   His work has been shown in several Montana galleries from 1976 until 1986. 

Retirement and a New Studio

On retirement from his work as a Lutheran pastor serving congregations, Ladd joined the artists’ co-op Avenue West Gallery. He moved to Liberty Lake, Washington, where he lives in a community on the Spokane River, and has a spacious studio upstairs. Painting is now a part of daily life and his work may be seen at Avenue West, as well as other venues and shows from time to time.

I am a member of the Avenue West Gallery artists’ co-op.  You can email me at ladd at beartrackart dot com.

Find me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, as Bear Track Art.