Yellowstone’s Winter Paradise
Every once in a while I have a crazy scheme that somehow works. This one involved Yellowstone in winter via snowcoach. Throw in some artists, a photographer and away we go. Every time I paint Yellowstone in winter I think, “I have to share this place with some other artists.” Yellowstone’s longest and arguably most beautiful season is so rarely painted, and that is a shame. I decided I had to find a crew of artists that were willing to brave the elements and paint the park in winter.
Here is our transportation, the artist-mobile, basically a van on tracks:
From left to right we have Brent Cotton, David Slonim, Kathy Wipfler, Joyce Lee, Ned Mueller, Greg Scheibel, myself, and our fantastic photographer, Audrey Hall. Not pictured is Matt Long, our driver and guide, who knows everything you could possibly know about Yellowstone.
We all met in Gardiner, painted the Lamar Valley for a day, and then took the snowcoach into Old Faithful, where we stayed in cabins. All told we painted for four long days.
Here’s Dave “The Janitor” Slonim setting up to paint on the Yellowstone River: (Thanks David for keeping us all laughing!)

I believe he’s coveting Brent’s hat, thinking it will compliment his blue coveralls. 
I’d like to say that we suffered for our art, but it was unusually warm and the weather was magnificent. We painted our way down to Old Faithful, spent a day painting in the geyser basins, and finished the last day with a session at Artists Point overlooking the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Here’s a couple pictures of what we got to stand behind our easels and look at:
This, in a word, is Paradise. And I got to share it with a fine crew of amazingly talented artists! We laughed and painted and laughed and painted and laughed some more… and took pictures and watched bison and wolves and tried not to go blind from the March sun reflecting off the snow. I’ll be smiling for a very long time. Can’t wait to touch up the field studies and start thinking about studio pieces. Be sure to pick up a copy of the summer arts issue of Big Sky Journal for an article about the trip, and look for an exhibit at a later date…
A toast to the artists, to our guide Matt, and our fine (and patient!) photographer Audrey. You are an amazing crew of talented and generous people. I’m honored to have had the chance to paint alongside you all.
Now it’s back to the studio to get ready for the CM Russell Exhibit, sigh…

This is Jasper getting ready to do his first “plein air oil.” I’m showing him how to mix green. Here he is blocking in the painting:
I fought bravely, but I was outnumbered. Notice the little guy sneaking in for the kill.

Yes, this is the real deal, not some dude dressed up for the artists. Most of the students had to scramble to get their easels out of the way for the cattle drive. This is, after all, Montana. Cattle have the right-of-way! I felt just a twinge of professional jealousy: I’ll never look as good behind an easel as that cowboy looked on the horse. Sigh…
This is my favorite workshop to teach. We stay in cabins at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch and share a communal kitchen. For painting excursions we have use of a 14 passenger bus and a volunteer bus driver. Basically it’s four days of non-stop art, in the field, in the classroom, and over dinner. I’m smiling as I write!
I really try to seek out other artists. We can all get a little isolated, so I find it invigorating to paint with other artists. I also had the chance to take a workshop with Matt Smith over in Bozeman. He’s an amazing painter and a great teacher, but he wasn’t easy! He didn’t cut me any slack! I really needed someone to rake me over the coals, so I tried to soak in every word.
Ahh, but what fun!