Bison inspiration

We made the Gardiner Chamber of Commerce facebook page - thanks to Barb in the office who was driving by and got a wonderful shot of bison in front of our gallery...

Check out her great photo of bison in our yard  - (just click on the colored text)

And for the 'facebook challenged', like me - here is a photo I took out our window (no need to click and go to the facebook site for this one... although Barb's photo IS much better)

 

Our Yellowstone Zoo

Bison Art Walk
 Looking at the art in our display window while grazing in the yard.

So I've had bison on my mind.

I've been thinking about doing a large bison painting. But generally that means I start with a plein air study....

Why not plein air paint some bison??

I went into Yellowstone to find some subjects napping that might lie still and cooperate.... And there they were, near Blacktail Plateau...

 

Thinking they may decide to get up and leave at any moment, I did a small FAST study.

 

However, they were very cooperative and didn't even move a bit. I wouldn't have had to paint as fast as I did. But I got the basic information down. Here's my quick study...

 

So I drove through the Park on a 'bison hunt' to get the wheels turning on a larger bison painting.

A lone bull crossing the Gardner River...

And getting out of the water on the other side...

 

A 'bison jam' - - Much easier to walk down the road than trudge through all that snow!

 

Extreme close up - (remember I was in the car NOT plein air painting when I took this shot, luckily!)

An interesting shape they created in their path...

A new calf was with this group - still had some of his orange coloring. This one was certainly not born when he was 'supposed to be', but looked to be doing just fine...

Sunset in Lamar Valley with a bison herd in the foreground....

 

I liked the pattern in the snow with the four bison - great abstract shapes!

Beautiful colors just after sunset in Lamar Valley with a very distant bison herd. Look at the color of that snow!

And that was my painting inspiration tour for a bison studio painting - which you will see in the future. But first you may see some "bison plein air" again as I sort through all the ideas swimming in my head. I need to decide which one will make it to the top of the pile!