“Kids are easy to take care of. You just give them some concentrated coffee and some water,” says Bitterroot Valley artist Daryld Pepprock as he helps his granddaughters and a friend with their paintings.

The little girls are making sepia paintings using a thick sludge of coffee – “like the stuff you leave in the bottom of the cup for a day or two and you forget about it” – thinned with water and brushed on paper. Two of the creations are smeary and rather abstract, while a third clearly depicts a tree, with a ladder and someone picking fruit.

Pepprock, whose own paintings hum with color, says it’s his first time at the Flathead Lake Festival of Art, held Saturday and Sunday at Sacajawea Park in Polson, and the third show he’s participated in since returning to art after a 30-year hiatus.

The death of his nephew four years ago in a tragic ATV accident made him reorder his priorities. He began to phase out of a successful house-painting business that entailed adding specialty finishes to the interiors of high-end homes. “It was artsy, but it wasn't art.”

In the past year, he started painting in oils, which he says are easier and more fun than watercolors.

When he talks to people about his work and the loss of his nephew, he shares the lesson that brought him back to painting. “Do what you want to do. Don't wait for next week – you might not have next week.”

Kayla Kujaczynski is a Chippewa Cree artist from Havre who said she’s been painting “since I could stand up.” About a decade ago she began creating ledger art – a narrative art form that often uses ledgers or account books as a canvas, layering images on top.

This marked her first year at the Polson festival. “I’m pretty happy with the show,” she said. “Except there’s been a lot of wind.”

Tony Cook of Dancing Beagle Art in Spokane had a different take on the stiff breeze that blew across the lake Saturday, jangling his many chimes. “The wind has been good for my business,” he said.

Sandpiper Art Gallery sponsors the annual Flathead Lake Festival of Art and a second one Aug. 9, the Courthouse Art Festival. Gallery member and professional artist Karla Martinson said this year’s show had 27 vendors, a significant drop from last year, and she thought attendance was lighter too.

However, it wasn’t just shoppers and passersby who visited the colorful booths, checking out paintings, photographs, jewelry, metal work and handmade crafts.

“Every show I go to, I end up buying stuff from other artists. I tell myself I shouldn't, but you fall in love with something, and you fall in love with people,” said Pepprock. “And artists know better than anyone the support artists need to keep working.”

    THREE GENERATIONS: Baylee Caciolo and her mom, Louanne Grier, show off new bracelets during the Flathead Lake Festival of Art, while young Blair Caciolo takes in the sights. (Kristi Niemeyer/Leader)