Plein Air Painting in the Wild, Wild West

Dawn Comes to Double Cabin

Where Real Cowboys Work and Play

In January of 2012 we were contacted by the Susan K. Black Foundation to teach watercolor and pastel plein air painting at their annual September workshop in Dubois, (pronounced Dew-boyz) Wyoming. We were told that this would be a large group of students, teachers and former teachers, possibly 150 people, all gathered in the tiny western town with but one objective - to paint all day, every day. We were the newbies, along with a few other teachers. Our schedule would be to hit the ground running early each morning, teach painting at a new location each day and stay with the group throughout each evening’s events and entertainment. By the end of the week, we were bushed, but satisfied that the job was well done. This article details some of the wonderful places we went and the paintings produced there.

We knew little about Dubois before we left our studios to make the 1000-mile trek there,…