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I’m as fascinated with Old Faithful Inn as anyone else who’s seen it.  What a magnificent structure - a true historical treasure.  I believe it’s as much of a must see as the geyser itself.

Wildlife can commonly be seen in the vicinity of the Inn.  I imagined what an event it would be if a wolf passed by.  Certainly, this would never happen while there was human activity.  In my painting, the pack of wolves are on the move at approximately 4:30 a.m. - while everyone is fast asleep.  If only they would wake up, they could watch these wondrous creatures in the comfort of their room instead of spending months (or even years) in the wilderness hoping for one glance of these elusive animals.

The idea for this painting created some real challenges - in particular, keeping the color of the objects in the piece true to the early morning light of the full moon.  When I went to the Inn at 4:00 a.m., one spring morning, I wasn’t expecting to see lights on.  At first, I felt reproducing that effect would be difficult - but it was a challenge I quite enjoyed.

That spring morning, as I set up to begin photographing, I heard a noise; turning around I saw a coyote lumbering along the boardwalk and in the distance another bolted by the mouth of Old Faithful.  From behind me, I heard yet another noise  - pivoting back, two more coyotes came out of the parking lot and scurried into the geyser field north of the Inn.  They weren’t wolves but in a small way I feel they vindicated the concept of my painting Early Morning Missed Encounter.

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