On a recent trip to Glacier National Park, Dustin Van Wechel came upon a rugged old tree that stopped him in his tracks. Something about its trunk, which had folded over itself and the mist hanging in its branches, reminded him of a scene from a horror movie—which gave him an idea for a painting.

“I looked at it and I thought that it would make a great setting for a group of ravens feeding on an animal carcass,” Van Wechel says. “But I wasn’t interested in actually painting the carcass, I just wanted to paint it so that anyone who looked at it would know that’s what was going on.”

That’s exactly the kind of story that Van Wechel loves to tell in his wildlife paintings.

Dustin Van Wechel

The Duck Pond
Oil
24″x24″

“This painting is a narrative on the idea of territory. Tolerating a pair of trumpeter swans who have arrived as less than welcome guests, the hooded merganser keeps its distance, preferring it has the pond all to itself.”

Dustin Van Wechel

Rocky Mountain Splendor
Oil
24″x48

“Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep are a favorite subject of mine. I find endless inspiration to paint in those moments where I experience the sublime vistas of their high-altitude environments and the bighorns’ regal, quiet demeanor. This painting is the realization on canvas of such moments.”