Art of the West digital magazine
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/32473
The Studio F By Barbara Coyner or wildlife artist Daniel Smith, it’s a “lions and tigers and bears” kind of world, although certainly in a more realistic way than The Wizard of Oz classic. On his walks through the woods, Smith has been lucky enough to spot mountain lions, and on his seven trips to Africa he’s observed tigers first- hand. The bears, however, actually are a little closer to home, sometimes too close. The Bozeman, Montana, artist says resident black bears often raid the bird feeders located within view of his studio windows and occasionally attempt to get inside the house. Such was the case one day, when the family heard a ruckus downstairs and discovered a black bear had broken a window and was ready to crawl into the room where the fam- ily parrots were caged. As the parrots squawked crazily, Smith came to the rescue, swearing at the intruder to chase him off. Fortunately, bear encounters aren’t an everyday occurrence, and Smith trea- sures the wildness of his property and the streams, pond, and waterfall that attract wildlife. It’s more than helpful to have some of his painting subjects right beyond his studio windows. “We have the Yellowstone ecosystem right in our back- yard, yet we’re only six miles from Main Street,” he says of his rural location. “It’s the best of both worlds, because it’s con- venient and not crazy remote. When the kids were growing up, it was nice to be close enough to their activities yet be out of town.” Moving to Montana from Minnesota in 1994, Smith and his wife Liz built their May/June 2011• ART of the WEST 27