Local artist reflects on a life of work, achievements

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, wildlife artist Dave Samuelson was enjoying a tour of the White House. He was invited to accept the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation Artist of the Year award and see his painting, Shadow Casting on the Blackfoot, added to the permanent collection that hangs in the Congressional building in Washington, D.C. The ceremony was scheduled to take place later that afternoon – but never happened. Dave and his wife, Trudy, soon found themselves struggling to find their hotel in the panic and smoke filled streets of D.C. 

“The plane that was brought down in Pennsylvania by those brave passengers was probably headed to the White House, where we were at the time. There’s some fate involved with that. I think about that a lot,“ said Samuelson.

For my grandfather, Dave Samuelson, stories and adventures like this are in endless supply. They range from hilarious, to harrowing, to heartbreaking. He’s been a resident of the Mission Valley for 20 years. As an avid outdoorsman and hunter, many of his experiences come from his time outdoors and create the subject matter for his paintings. But before all that, he just knew he liked to create things.

One of his most conspicuous pieces is the Griz/Cat bronze trophy that he made in 2001, which started as a painting.

“A bunch of businessmen and Griz boosters in Missoula commissioned me to do the painting. We took it over to the capitol in Helena and gave it to the governor, Judy Martz. They said, ‘Can you make that into a bronze for a trophy?’ and I said, ‘sure.’”

“It’s called The Great Divide because the continental divide essentially divides loyalties for the football teams. Eastern Montana primarily likes the Bobcats and Western Montana primarily likes the Griz.” The trophy is ceremonially passed from school to school, depending on who wins the annual Brawl of the Wild.

A farm kid from Iowa, Dave played with art throughout his childhood, mostly in the form of car sketches on homework assignments. In the late 60’s he made the commitment to a career in art and was accepted into the Kansas City Art Institute. It was the hands-on, construction aspect of art that really appealed to him and he found his love of art and building come together in sculpture. After paying off his student loans he was ready to move his family out of the city and start graduate school.

“I decided to come to Montana for two reasons; the first being that Rudy Autio was here. He was one of the most highly regarded artists in the country, and he was the head of the ceramics department, so that was very appealing. I think I always knew that I would end up in Montana. It worked out perfect.”

While graduate school was great for a time, bills piled up and he opened a masonry business in Missoula which became his livelihood for years. Art was put on the back-burner. During the economic recession of the early 1980’s, however, the construction business virtually stopped. It was then that Samuelson started working as a hunting and outfitting guide.

“I was up in the hills; hunting, guiding, and drawing, and some of the clients were interested in buying some of the drawings. One day I was in a frame shop in Missoula and I ran into another artist named Ken Carlson, who was one of the best wildlife artists in the country. He said, ‘These are great. Where are your paintings?’ I explained that in all the years I went to school, I never took a painting class. It was always sculpture. So he said, ‘Come up to my house and I can show you in three days what it would take you three years to learn on your own.’ He got me started in gouache, which is a type of watercolor. On my own I got started in oils and I’ve been doing that ever since. I like oils very much. The colors are rich and vibrant, and they take forever to dry, which is perfect because I’m a slow painter,” Samuelson laughed.

The majority of paintings depict scenes of Montana wildlife, hunting and the outdoors with much of his inspiration coming from his outfitting days. “When I paint, I like to tell a story. That’s what most of these paintings do and I think titles are extremely important in telling the story,” said Samuelson. “I’m not one to just see where it [a painting] goes. I have to have an end product in mind, and what it’s gonna be about, what it’s gonna look like. So it’s pretty well thought out before I even start.”

Dave made a name for himself in 1988 when his painting, Rite of Spring, was chosen for the Montana Duck Stamp. Soon thereafter he gained the attention of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation which began a 13-year-long relationship in which he was named Artist of the Year and Quarter on many occasions.

Some of his most iconic, storytelling pieces came out of this time.

“The most sought after painting I ever did is called Family Tree,” shared Samuelson. The painting depicts an large bull elk staring up at an elk skull mounted on a tree outside an old hunting cabin. “The elk in the painting has a drop-point, and so does the elk skull mounted on the tree, so that’s probably an old ancestor because they do pass those features on through generations. The Elk Foundation gave those prints away to special donors for many years. The same tree is also in Family Reunion and two more.”

In addition to doing commissioned works for the U.S. Forestry Service, the National Park Service, the International Bear Association and the Missoula Carousel.

These days, my grandpa doesn’t paint nearly as much as he used to and describes himself as, “sorta semi-retired.” Locally, his art can be seen in Ninepipe’s Lodge and Guy’s Lolo Creek Steakhouse. While I’ve grown up around my grandpa’s art, before I began this project I didn’t know very much about his actual career and the fantastic places it has taken him over the years. This project has given me a better understanding of that eclectic studio and all the creations that originated there.