Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/401545
S teve Sharkey is a self-admitted dweller. He's spent his life traveling the world for business and pleasure. But in the fall there's nothing he would rather be doing than hunting elk in the Teton Wilderness of northwest Wyoming. "I'm not interested in always pursuing a record-book animal," he says. "One thing I like to do is dwell, waiting and searching for a nice bull. It gives me an opportunity to draw out the moment as long as I can . . . for the hunt to go on a little longer." Sharkey values trophies as touchstones of his most memorable days in the field. Prominently displayed in the living room of his Jackson Hole home is the head mount of a mule deer and next to that, a 300-class bull elk standing majestically in front of his autumn harem. The wapiti isn't the handiwork of a taxidermist; it's a massive 30- x 40-inch oil titled Wyoming Wilderness painted by Utah wildlife artist Chad Poppleton. Sharkey commissioned the scene because he, like a lot of collectors, regards Poppleton, 37, as one of the rising stars of modern sporting art. "After I saw a painting of Chad's featured in an ad for the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, I looked around, visited galleries, and then I realized there are few artists who can do a better job of portraying elk," Sharkey says. Brad Richardson, owner and founder of Legacy Galleries, which has locations in Jackson, Wyoming, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Bozeman, Montana, says that Poppleton is following in the stylistic path blazed by Carl Rungius, the late Bob Kuhn, and Ken Carlson. "While there are contemporaries who do a fine job of painting their subjects realistically, Chad strives to be more painterly," Richardson explains. "He is more of an artist interpreting the spirit of an A rising star in wildlife art, Chad Poppleton has already achieved a distinctive style for conveying the spirit of each animal in his paintings. had Poppleton enjoys packing into remote mountain areas to observe wild animals in their natural haunts and to gather impressions for his art. C WYOMING WILDERNESS S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 3 2