Hello. My name is Tom Wolfe. I live in the Beartooth Mountains of south central Montana, thirty-three miles north of Yellowstone Park.
I was born in Livingston, Mt., in 1953, and spent the summers of my youth at my grandfather’s cabin on the Stillwater River, not far from where I live now. It was an idyllic place and time with horses, eternal fishing, and plenty of mountains to camp in.
Winters were spent in Spokane, Washington, where I was nurtured by an artistic family. My mother was the director of the Spokane Art School, a painter, and ceramicist. My father was in the investment business but sculpted in steel and cast bronze as a hobby. When I was twelve they returned from a trip to England and gave me a box of Windsor Newton water colors. I still use it regularly all these years later. After high school I attended Western Washington University at Bellingham where I graduated in 1977 with a B.A. in English and a minor in art.
Winters were spent in Spokane, Washington, where I was nurtured by an artistic family. My mother was the director of the Spokane Art School, a painter, and ceramicist. My father was in the investment business but sculpted in steel and cast bronze as a hobby. When I was twelve they returned from a trip to England and gave me a box of Windsor Newton water colors. I still use it regularly all these years later. After high school I attended Western Washington University at Bellingham where I graduated in 1977 with a B.A. in English and a minor in art.
After college I lived in the Alaskan bush with Athabaska Indians. There I hunted, fished, trapped, ran sled dogs, fought forest fires, and painted water colors; often portraits of my native friends. In 1981 I mushed a team of sled dogs from Alaska, down the Canadian Rockies to my grandfather’s Montana cabin where I spent so much time in my youth.
To support myself along the 3,000 mile route I painted and sold watercolors. After that, I saddled a horse and, leading a pack horse, rode through the mountains to Jackson Hole where I worked as a hunting guide and dog sled tour guide. In my off time I became enamored with the art scene there and it was in Jackson that I decided to make painting more than just a hobby. This pursuit took longer than I originally anticipated, however, as most of my life has been spent in and around mountainous back country. For a long time I didn’t market my work to any great extent. In fact, the first year after deciding to paint I spent a long winter snowed in at 8,500 feet in the Gros Ventre range, many miles from a town. By spring I had completed nearly 250 water colors though, and these I sold to people who heard about them and found their way to my cabin. It gave me enough money to saddle the horses and ride back through the mountains to Montana. There, in 1987, to supplement my painting endeavor, I became a licensed outfitter and took people into the Beartooth Moutains hunting and fishing on horseback. This work afforded me the ability to pay my bills while having entire winters to paint. It also gave me time to take painting tours of Europe, in particular: France, Switzerland, and Italy.
To support myself along the 3,000 mile route I painted and sold watercolors. After that, I saddled a horse and, leading a pack horse, rode through the mountains to Jackson Hole where I worked as a hunting guide and dog sled tour guide. In my off time I became enamored with the art scene there and it was in Jackson that I decided to make painting more than just a hobby. This pursuit took longer than I originally anticipated, however, as most of my life has been spent in and around mountainous back country. For a long time I didn’t market my work to any great extent. In fact, the first year after deciding to paint I spent a long winter snowed in at 8,500 feet in the Gros Ventre range, many miles from a town. By spring I had completed nearly 250 water colors though, and these I sold to people who heard about them and found their way to my cabin. It gave me enough money to saddle the horses and ride back through the mountains to Montana. There, in 1987, to supplement my painting endeavor, I became a licensed outfitter and took people into the Beartooth Moutains hunting and fishing on horseback. This work afforded me the ability to pay my bills while having entire winters to paint. It also gave me time to take painting tours of Europe, in particular: France, Switzerland, and Italy.
In the mid nineties I made the acquaintance of master landscape painter Hall Diteman and for twelve years apprenticed with him in his studio in Billings, Mt. In his early years, through a program at Pamona College, Diteman was one of a handful of people allowed to paint in the Louvre, copying the work of the old Masters. For many years he worked in oils, held his own shows and did not show in the gallery scene. Still, his work has been sold at Sotheby’s of New York and hangs many places throughout the United States. The only time he allowed his work to be made into prints was when he was part of a series of Landscapes for the Franklin Mint. Wilson Hurley was also in that series. Diteman also mentored and was an influence on Clyde Aspevig and Charlie Fritz. I gave the eulogy at his funeral.
I sold my outfitting business in 2002, and built a cabin on the shoulder of the second highest mountain in Montana. Here, at the edge of the Absarokee/ Beartooth Wilderness area near the community of Nye, Mt., I have my studio. I combine life in the mountains with winter in Scottsdale, Az., where I also set up my easel full time.
I still have a herd of horses to get into the mountains in the summer and still pack a fly rod there. However, now, instead of packing tourists, I pack my easel, brushes and paint.
