Representational artist Tom Wolfe enjoys painting in watercolor and oil. A third generation Montanan, Wolfe was introduced to the western landscape by artistic parents. The family lived in various parts of Montana, and he grew up with Charlie Russell prints on the wall of his bedroom. For a couple of years, the family lived in Great Falls where a young Tom was impressed by visits to the great cowboy artist’s cabin and museum. Tom loved the cozy old cabin with Charlie's paint splattered easel and other artist paraphernalia. Although Wolfe enjoys painting the animals and inhabitants of the old West, he is equally at ease painting their modern day counterparts, setting them in the incomparable landscapes they inhabit. After all these years, Tom still has the set of Windsor Newton watercolors his parents brought home from a trip to England when he was twelve years old.

   In his youth Tom’s family moved to Washington state where his mother, a working artist, became director of the Spokane Art School and Tom early on gained national attention when he represented his state's schools in Washington D.C., for a scholastic art competition. He minored in Art and holds a B.A. in English from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, but his education in painting with oils came from a twelve year apprenticeship with master landscape artist Hall Diteman (deceased). During these twelve years Tom was able to hone his artistic skills and technique. After Diteman passed away, Tom continued to explore the classical renderings of light, air, and space developed particularly by such artists as Turner, Thomas Moran, and Albert Bierstadt. In 1996 he made a museum and painting tour of France and England, then a couple years later did the same in Italy. On these journeys he was particularly impressed by the original renditions of the Impressionists. More recently, on a trip to Viet Nam and Cambodia, Tom was introduced to Asian lacquer work and is excited to incorporate this technique into his own Western themes.   

   After college Tom moved to Alaska where he spent four years living in the bush; sharing a cabin with Native Athabascan friends. There he learned to hunt, fish, trap, and run dogs. In 1981 he harnessed a team of sled dogs and mushed them through an eight month odyssey down the wilderness of the Canadian Rockies to his grandfather’s cabin on the Stillwater River in Montana. He painted and sold watercolors along the way. After visiting his grandfather for a year, Tom then saddled a horse and rode through the mountains of the Greater Yellowstone Wilderness Ecosystem to southern Wyoming and back. The first winter of this particular adventure was spent taking tourists on dogsled rides in and around scenic Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In Jackson Tom was impressed by the world class art scene, and it was there he made the decision to become a working artist. The following winter found him snowed in for nine months as caretaker of a cabin high in the Gros Ventre Mountains. During the long winter months he painted hundreds of watercolors. The following year, upon his return to Montana, Tom began learning about oils through his apprenticeship with Hall Diteman.

   Like many a young artist, Tom found it a challenge to pay the bills with his brushes, so in 1987 he became a licensed outfitter and spent summers for the next 30+ years guiding people into his beloved Beartooth Mountains on hunting and fishing trips with horses, finishing most of his paintings in the long winter months. The countless miles of trail provided a lifetime of inspiration for him and many of his clients from that time became the early patrons and collectors that have supported his painting dream from then to this day.

   In 2002 Tom bought land in the hills near Nye, Mt., (just north of Yellowstone Park) where he built a log home and studio. He finally married the love of his life in 2017 and now spends his time in the studio, surrounded by inspiration: the beautiful Beartooth Mountains, the wildlife living there, his horses in the pasture, and neighbors who still live the western lifestyle. On his easel is this quote from his boyhood hero, Charlie Russell: “It is a blessed man who can make a living doing what he loves to do.” In this regard Tom is grateful to be so blessed.