Featured Artist Pam Little

Artist Pam Little presents a collection of digital paintings that captures western wildlife in all seasons. See more by visiting her website.

 

 

I started creating artwork in elementary and high school. We were an Air Force family, so I’ve lived in several different places and environments. From Hawaii to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Texas, Florida, and now to Montana.

 

 

I graduated from Florida State University with a B.A. in Visual Communications. Later I received an M.A. in Biomedical Communications from the University of Texas Southwestern Graduate School.

 

 

Until I left graduate school, all my work was in traditional media. I worked especially in pencil and pen and ink drawing, watercolor, and acrylics. I did use a computer to type my thesis, but not too long after that, we medical illustrators began to explore digital artwork.

 

 

This was a tidal change at first, and a little scary. But soon it became another media to use, no different from any other. I learned Photoshop, Painter, and now use primarily Procreate on my iPad Pro.

 

 

I moved to Montana from Miami for a medical illustration position. Then I began to explore the mountains, national parks, and all the beauty of the Rocky Mountain West. I’ve also always loved animals and nature, and they became a large part of my artwork.

 

 

After I met my husband Howard in 2001, one of our first trips was backpacking in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness. We soon realized that we weren’t going to experience much of “The Bob” on foot. In 2003, we started going horseback, with Jack and Karen Hooker on their horse packing trips. On that first trip, we were married up on Scapegoat massif. In Montana, you don’t need an officiant and Jack was glad to fill in. You only need witnesses, and paperwork filed at the courthouse.

 

 

We did those trips through 2012. During that time, we began our two-to-three a year trips to Yellowstone. Both places, plus our acreage in the woods on Downing Mountain outside Hamilton, have inspired almost all my artwork from then until now.

 

 

The photographs I take are my references. I may use several in one piece, a landscape, flower, animal, sky. Moving around and assembling those pieces is my sketch-making process.

 

 

I also play with the color, brightness and saturation of the photos. However there’s nothing that can’t be changed in the painting process. I’ve exhibited in a number of juried shows through the years and continue to do so. Enjoy my work!

 

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