Artist Niles paints new mural for city library
Artist Joel Niles with the new mural he recently painted in the Columbia Falls library.
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
Hungry Horse Artist Joel Niles recently completed a new mural on the walls of the Columbia Falls Library. The mural was paid for through a donation from Church Women United through the sale of the Klothes Kloset building at the end of Nucleus Avenue.
Niles spent the month of June walking around the Bad Rock Wildlife Management Area. It depicts the canyon in sun and light, showers and shadows, capturing the moodiness in weather that June often brings to the Flathead.
Several other of Niles’s works on currently on display in the library as well.
Niles paints smaller plein air studies of his scenes before he expands them into murals, he explains.
Each one takes between 20 minutes and a couple of hours.
He also recently completed historic murals in the KM Building in Kalispell and did extensive black and white murals in the halls of the Ruis Buildings on Nucleus Avenue.
The mural is a permanent part of the library, but Niles other work, which is also on display, will be up for the next three months. Patrons are urged to come take a look.