I’ve never considered myself to be a wildlife artist, even though I love being out in Nature. Not that there isn’t really a lot of good wildlife artwork out there, but making it was just never my thing. But there are plenty of really great artists out here in the west, and one of my favorite museums to visit is the Buffalo Bill Art Museum up in Cody Wyoming. And it is very very western.
I guess I’ve always been more interested in abstraction and geometry. And yet, I really enjoyed making the pictures above. This diptych. The elk, the wolves, the mountains, sky and snow. Man, they were fun to draw!
I’ve never really seen wolves out in the wild. They are incredible animals, but I have never seen one. I have encountered many elk though, and they are magnificent. I’ve come across them while hiking on Montana trails. I’ve also watched herd of elk running and buggeling through western meadows many times. Such an amazing sight.
One time, my car broke down in the middle of somewhere Wyoming late at night. Although I was miles from any mark of civilization and it’d take a while, I decided to walk back to a gas station I’d passed a bit earlier, and after walking for an hour or more I came to this crossroads. There were some bushes next to me right by the side of the road and I heard something moving around in them. Suddenly these huge antlers rose up and out of those bushes, and then the rest of the elk. Right next to me, in the dark night, under the Wyoming stars and sky.. I could have reached out and grabbed that elk’s nose! But I didn’t. We just kind of looked at each other for a second (which seemed like forever), and then I crossed the road (as calmly as I could), while it stood there watching me go. It was pretty amazing to stand so close to such a powerful animal.
Anyway, I love animals! And the Second World is the animal world.
