Artists: Howard Friedland

Howard Friedland was born in Bronx, New York and started painting at the age of 5 by pilfering from his older brother's art supplies and copying works by Impressionist masters Cezanne, Monet, Modigliani and Degas. He continued his studies through high school and attended the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture in New York's Greenwich Village. After graduation, Howard stayed in the city working on Madison Avenue in the advertising business as a graphic designer. Howard continued his pursuit of fine art and studied painting with Ned Jacob, Michael J. Lynch, Mark Daley, Laura Robb, and Matt Smith. As his art career continued to grow and flourish, his studies and travels led him to Miami, Fl and Taos, NM before he met and married fellow painter Susan Blackwood, who lured him to Montana. We are all the better for having Howard and his expertise here in the West. 

In 2002, Howard co-founded the Montana Painters Alliance, a group of like-minded Montana professional landscape painters who gather across the state and paint the beauty that surrounds us here in Montana.  

In 2003, Howard was inducted into the Oil Painters of America as a Signature Member and went on to win the Best of Show Award of Excellence a the Annual Oil Painters of America Exhibition in 2008. In 2009, he was was selected to be a member of the Board of Directors.  

His work has been featured in the Master Painters of the World in the International Artists Magazine, and his studio and paintings will be featured in the March 2010 issue of American Artist Magazine.. He has painted, taught and exhibited extensively in New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Arizona, and Florida, as well as Mexico, France, Italy, England, Spain and Portugal.

"The challenge for me is always to see the world with fresh eyes and respond spontaneously to the beauty before me. I prefer to paint only enough for the viewer to get a clear vision of what the subject is and suggest the rest."