The Rocky Hoerner Picture Show

Rocky Hoerner has been drawing and painting 50 years, at least.

“Since I can remember,” he said during an interview last week.

His grandmother Elizabeth Hoerner would give him some crayons and paper and “I was good to go.”

That was a long time ago. At 66, Hoerner is still drawing and painting out of his Martin City studio.

Hoerner is completely homegrown. His father, George and his mother, Frances, had seven kids. Rocky was the only boy.

He graduated from high school here in 1975. Sold his first works at 14. His mom was a barhender at the Log Cabin Bar and she needed five Christmas drink special signs drawn up.

Hoerner got 10 bucks apiece for them.

Through high school people started buying his art — distinctive and meticulous line drawings.

The work is painstaking, he notes. It typically takes 25 to 45 hours to complete one piece. The ink technique is called stipple. He first puts the painting on canvas and then adds the detail with a pen.

In the old days, he used Rapidograph pens. Today he uses a fine-tip Sharpie.

He likes acryclic paint because it dries faster and is water based, though he has done watercolors and some oil paintings as well.

Hoerner is entirely self-taught, save for inspiration and encouragement from his high school art teacher Robin Stiff. He’s also been inspired by the greats along the way, including Charlie Russell, Michelangelo and Vincent Van Gogh, to name a few.

His work, at least to locals, is entirely recognizable and distinctive.

That might be because his calendars grace the walls of hundreds of homes and businesses in the area. He’s been doing them for 37 years.

His first one made almost no money, he recalled. He did the original on an odd-sized paper stock, which cost way more than he expected when it had copies printed at the Hungry Horse News print shop.

Today they’re done on standard 11- by-17 paper.

Horner said he works on his art almost every day.

“Once you get in the mood and get the flow going it comes together,” he said.

Over the years he’s had to work plenty of other jobs to make ends meet, including working at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co., lumber mills and grocery stores. He even was a delivery driver for Airborne Express.

The art market can be challenging at times, with plenty of ebbs and flows.

“For most of us (artists) it’s a struggle. But it’s worth it. I won’t give it up, I know that,” he said.

His favorite subject is nature and Glacier National Park.

The work is often whimsical and with humor. One painting, for example, depicts a host of critters both driving and riding in a red bus on Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road.

He currently has a show at the Columbia Falls Library entitled “Glacial Freedom,” which showcases his work for the past several years.

The show was organized by friend Ray Lynn Goodson, who did all the graphic designs that accompany the art.

Hoerner said Goodson is an excellent artist in her own right and he greatly appreciates her help. She also does his website.

“I don’t hardly know how to use a computer,” he laughed. “I’m still stuck in the ‘70s.”

His daughter, Mercedes is also a talented artist. The eye for art runs the family.

His advice for young people trying to make a living at it?

“Come up with a signature people will remember,” he said. “Something different that sticks in people’s minds.”