From the look of Tammy Phillips’ artwork, it’s easy to tell the local artist was born and raised in the Flathead Valley.

Her watercolor paintings of horses, fly-fishermen and Glacier National Park are on display in her new studio and gallery in the Kalispell Center Mall. It’s part of the self-taught painter’s homecoming after 35 years away from her stomping grounds.

“It’s fantastic being back,” Phillips said Wednesday as she sat in her newly decorated space in the mall.

Phillips started doing watercolor paintings growing up in the valley decades ago, but for 35 years she lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, with her husband in the oil industry. There, Phillips ran her own art studio and gallery for seven years and worked at another gallery for five years before that.

When her husband finally became interested in retirement—something Phillips herself has never even entertained—she brought her wealth of experience and cadre of fellow artists to her new establishment in her hometown.

“There’s no regular art scene here, but there’s a lot of artists,” Phillips observed after being immersed in the active Fairbanks art community. Since moving back, she wanted to provide more opportunities for artists and art enthusiasts to gather and share their craft.

To this end, Phillips created her gallery with a studio space to meet with fellow artists and a display side where she features a new artist every month. She also plans on hosting monthly First Friday artist receptions to welcome new featured artists.

“Connecting buyers with artists…that’s really the magic of all this,” Phillips explained. “Connecting the two is why we need our galleries instead of just online.”

With this in mind, Phillips designed her gallery with a very specific artistic vision. Her space is the former site of the Sunflower Moose clothing boutique, and she said she “freshened it up” to create the art gallery vibe she envisioned. She and her husband painted the white and gray walls themselves to help the paintings stand out, and she custom-ordered specific light bulbs to achieve just the right lighting to highlight the artwork.

“You should’ve seen me at Home Depot trying to explain what kind of bulbs I wanted,” she said with a laugh.

It’s clear that Phillips put so much thought into her space in order to have the best display possible for her work and the creations of her fellow artists.

Phillips mostly paints watercolors, and many of these have Western themes of the local landscape, Flathead Valley cityscapes and Montana wildlife.

“I go through phases,” she noted.

But her preference for delicate watercolor art hasn’t changed since her first watercolor painting of a swan decades ago.

“After working with it,” she said of watercolors, “you just fall in love with what it can do and oil can’t. I love the spontaneity. You don’t know exactly what you’re going to get.”

Her first featured artist, Karen Leigh, shares her love for watercolors, although she prefers a different set of subjects. Both women are involved in the Montana Watercolor Society, but Leigh—who has been a longtime instructor at Flathead Valley Community College—said she isn’t interested in typical Western scenery. “I like urban landscapes—buildings, people, junk. I don’t care to paint Glacier Park,” she said candidly.

These varied interests, along with the other works included in Phillips Studio & Gallery, such as Bill Campbell pottery, contribute to the overall artistic community Phillips is trying to foster with her new gallery.

“We artists do better together,” Phillips said as she and Leigh chatted about their favorite types of paper to use for paintings and their evolving opinions on using a hot press.

In this spirit, Phillips said “there’s no prerequisite” to join her burgeoning artistic community. She encouraged local artists of all stripes to connect with her to explore displaying their art in her gallery. She said she considers any artist, “as long as they like their work well enough to show their friends.”

Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.