Swan River student artist depicts wildlife in holiday card

Ava Hall might seem a little young to be tasked with creating the company Christmas card for Fidelity National Title, but the Swan River School eighth-grader has plenty of experience to draw on.

The accomplished young Lakeside artist said she has been actively drawing, painting and sculpting for just about all of her 14 years. She said she’s been an artist “all my life, I’d say.”

By third grade, Hall had already reached a milestone most artists dream of throughout their careers. She was only a few years older than her audience when she illustrated the children’s book “The Garden of Smiles” with her cousin Kelly Potter.

Her colored-pencil illustrations depict an imaginative story of a little girl who falls asleep and encounters a menagerie of fantastical animals like a ticklish moose and rainbow fish.

It’s been about five years since “The Garden of Smiles” debuted, but Hall’s penchant for wildlife art hasn’t changed. Her favorite artistic subjects are big game such as deer and elk. “I love hunting,” she said.

Recipients of Fidelity National Title’s Christmas card this year can see Hall’s signature style in the animal imagery on the card, which shows Santa Claus and his reindeer descending over a snowy landscape dotted with evergreen trees and red barns.

“It’s more vintage,” explained Hall, who designed the company’s Christmas card last year as well. Her previous Christmas card showed a wintry scene with Santa Claus surrounded by a herd of wild animals, including a polar bear, a mountain goat, a moose and a few foxes.

For years, the enterprising young talent had been creating cards for family and friends, but last year her mother’s supervisor at Fidelity National Title asked her to share her artistry with a wider audience on the annual holiday card.

“I definitely want to do my best,” Hall stated, but she said she isn’t particularly intimidated by sharing her artwork with the company’s wide array of customers.

It makes sense that Hall would be unfazed with displaying her work, since she has won the Montana Department of Transportation’s Aviation Awareness Art Contest two years in a row. She first entered the competition — which focuses on the ways aviation contributes to Montana — in sixth grade and won the sixth-to-eighth grade category right off the bat.

Her winning drawing shows two deer running away from a forest fire as firefighting planes drop flame retardant on a fire. This year, she won the competition again with a drawing of an injured logger being loaded onto the ALERT helicopter with snow-capped mountains in the background.

As part of the competition, Hall and the winners in the two other age groups were flown to an awards ceremony in Helena. Hall, whose father is a pilot, plans to enter the competition again this spring. She isn’t sure exactly what she’ll draw this time around, but it’s a safe bet some Montana wildlife might make an appearance.

Her pilot father didn’t only serve as the inspiration for Hall to enter the competition — he’s also a large part of the reason Hall became interested in artwork in the first place. Her father is an artist focusing on painting and drawing, and her 11-year-old sister Amelia shares the family passion for art as well.

“I kind of inherited that from him,” Hall explained.

She’s planning on branching out with her own style going forward. She has started experimenting with a new technique that involves cutting out paper and gluing the pieces together to create a layered picture.

“It’s fun,” she said, although she didn’t seem to think there was anything particularly special about an artist of her age creating their own unique artistic style, winning multiple statewide awards or being featured on a corporate holiday card.

“I think everyone’s got their talents,” Hall said modestly. ¦

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