A Sense of Place

Where art, architecture and the wild become one

For John Banovich, a work of art begins long before the first brushstroke.

It begins with place.

Standing beneath an autumn canopy of Montana aspens. Following elephants across an African floodplain. Watching the light change across a landscape. Listening, observing, returning - and understanding a wild place deeply enough to paint not simply what it looks like, but what it feels like.

For more than three decades, these experiences have shaped Banovich’s art. Travel has taken him into some of the world’s great wild landscapes, while time spent observing wildlife and habitat has informed not only what he paints, but how he sees the natural world.

For one extraordinary private commission in Montana, that relationship with place expanded far beyond a single canvas.

Bringing the Montana landscape inside

The project was conceived as an immersive visual journey through one of the West’s most distinctive landscapes.

Painting, sculpture and architectural art were brought together to celebrate the ecological richness of Montana and create a dialogue between the landscape outside and the spaces within.

At the heart of the collection are Aspen I & Aspen II, a monumental pair of paintings inspired by the shifting colors and filtered light of an autumn aspen grove.

Rather than asking the viewer to look at the landscape, Banovich places us within it.

The paintings are viewed from eye level, drawing the eye upward and through the trees as though walking into the grove itself. Loose, impressionistic passages and richly applied impasto capture luminous foliage, pale trunks, shadow and autumn light.

As Banovich explains:

“I start with developing a compelling composition, where your emotional strength as an artist must reside.”

John Banovich, Aspen I & II, oil on Belgian linen, each painting 209h x 100w in.

Beyond the canvas

Aspen I & II were never intended to exist in isolation.

Throughout the residence, the visual language of the surrounding landscape reappears in different forms and materials.

Aspen leaves become sculptural light in Autumn Canopy, conceived and designed by Banovich and realized in hand-blown and hand-formed glass by Brent Rogers, with 24-karat gold leaves and glass branches.

Wildlife and forest emerge from the intricately carved Elk I & II wood panels, designed by Banovich and carved by Dave Ganley.

Painting, sculpture, architecture and craftsmanship begin to speak to one another.

Rather than a collection of individual artworks placed within a home, the residence becomes part of the artistic experience itself - a journey that unfolds as one moves through it.

Art as a way of seeing

There is a philosophy at the heart of the project that extends well beyond this Montana residence.

Art can do more than depict the natural world. It can change the way we experience it. And perhaps, in experiencing it more deeply, remind us why wild places are worth protecting. That connection has followed Banovich throughout his career.

It begins beneath Montana aspens, but it might just as easily begin on an African floodplain.

Travel has allowed Banovich to spend meaningful time in wild places - observing animals, landscapes and the complex ecosystems that sustain them. Those experiences find their way onto the canvas, and the art, in turn, has become a means of helping protect the places that provide the inspiration.

Through Banovich Wildscapes Foundation, that relationship extends into conservation, and through Wildscapes Travel, people are invited to experience some of these extraordinary landscapes for themselves. And through the art, something of those places comes home.

It creates a circle: Experience the wild. Understand it. Create from it. Share it. Protect it.

Because ultimately, conservation begins with connection. We protect what we value, and often, before we can value a place, we first have to experience it.

ART • TRAVEL • CONSERVATION

From Montana to Africa… and beyond. Exploring wild places.