Erin stared out of the large western facing window in her cabin, as the sun was settling behind the mountains that graced her ten acres of land in White Fish, Montana. She was trying to perfectly match her paint colors to the shades of orange and red of the setting sun, and their unique winter hues as the colors reflected off of the cold, frosty air. Dabbing her paintbrush onto her palate, she resisted the urge to mix more white into the rustic color she had already created. Erin always took great care in the planning and execution of her paintings, and she was a perfectionist when it came to all the smaller details of her paintings. She believed it was all those perfected smaller details that made her paintings "pop" and come to life with realism.

 

"I am not letting you get away," she said out loud to herself, as she maintained her feverish pace of painting at her easel.

 

Since leaving Chicago, Erin's primary objects of artistic creation were the beautiful landscapes of the mountains, foothills and plains of Montana that now surrounded the land around her. In Chicago she had primarily painted people or strangers in the city's north side area where she lived, and her paintings were wildly popular. She enjoyed capturing the emotion and details of a moment in a person's life, and most people were surprised by how well that was conveyed in her paintings. A woman embarking on a new phase in her life in her early thirties with no husband and kids, Erin suddenly found herself getting restless in the city and desiring to move to someplace much more rural and live a rustic country lifestyle. She also felt herself being pulled to paint life from a different perspective, and what better contrast to city living, than country living.

 

Erin had been in Montana for about six months now and things seemed to be falling into place. The cash she had earned from selling her prime location condo in Chicago was proving to be enough for her to live on, so that she could continue her vocation as an artist and work from home. The environment was exactly what Erin needed to let her creativity flow, and several art studios in the southwestern state region had already contacted her with interest in having her paintings put on display in their various locations across the states. The ten acre parcel that came with her cabin was definitely rustic, and she had a whole lot more living chores to contend with than she ever had while living in Chicago. There was a lot of physical labor involved, and between that and her painting, Erin was certainly never bored, was in the best shape of her life, and she found that to be true of her mind as well as her body. And, the more acclimated Erin got to all the aspects of living the country life, the less she struggled. That was... until the storm hit.