Flathead Valley Community College art students and their instructor Gayle Hegland plan to give motorists more than exhaust to ponder at the intersection of Main and Idaho streets.

Sponsored by Sportsman & Ski Haus, Hegland and her design students have begun painting a large mural to hang in the store's five-panel window across from Dairy Queen.

Although facing the busiest hub in Kalispell, most drivers never see the camouflage-draped window.

"You don't even notice it," Hegland said. "I didn't."

Jessica Petersen, Sportsman's operations specialist, wanted to change that obscurity. She tried to think of a better use for that window and its side of the building.

"We had a planter built this summer," Petersen said.

Still, the wall seemed a wasted opportunity. Since zoning precluded any commercial advertising, Petersen thought about a work of art.

Another employee at the store had taken a class with Hegland and suggested that Petersen give the artist a call.

Hegland decided the project offered her students an opportunity to work with a real client and to collaborate in painting the mural.

"I'm stressing to the students that it's their chance to contribute to the community," she said.

They began by developing guidelines with their client. Sportsman representatives requested the realistic style that Hegland uses in her personal artwork.

She came up with the concept of depicting the Flathead outdoors in all four seasons. Students submitted several design ideas to the Sportsman for approval.

"The final design is a composite of a lot of the students' ideas," she said. "It's really a portrayal of the countryside."

Hegland said students avoided focusing on hunting, camping or outdoor sports. She said the hardest part of the design was making the images of each season flow together.

After getting the go-ahead, the class stretched a 190-by-57-inch blank canvas in the hallway at Flathead Valley Community College. Students used a grid technique to enlarge and transfer sketches.

Hegland assigned different students to do art studies of an elk, grizzly bear and Big Mountain for the various panels.

"We've also got some beargrass in there," she said with a laugh.

Although Hegland called the design slightly surreal, she said all the colors reflect nature.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, the class works together painting the mural with latex house paint. Hegland said she chose that media for durability and because defining shape, rather than providing texture, was important.

"You need to be able to identify the shape from the highway and from Dairy Queen," Hegland said.

About 11 students work on the mural each work. One is making a videotape production of the whole project.

"We figure it will take a little more than a month to finish it," she said.

Hegland said the project dovetailed nicely with her design class, which explores both art theory and practice. The students hope their mural will make the wait less vexing at Main and Idaho.

"I think it will be a nice contribution to the intersection," Hegland said. "The plan is to light it at night."

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com