Former Glacier National Park wolf biologist Boyd making mark in art world

Diane Boyd has always been able to draw and paint. Despite having few lessons and no formal training, she is a natural artist. A piece she did in the mid 1980s of a whitetail buck being pursued by wolves is exquisite in its detail and realism.

She sold it and it pretty much paid for her pickup.

“It wasn’t much of a pickup,” she joked during a recent visit to her North Fork home.

But most people would never know Boyd for her artistic endeavours. Boyd’s acclaim in Montana came not from her oils, but for another talent: catching and tracking wolves.

As a University of Montana graduate student, Boyd began trapping and tracking wolves in and around Glacier National Park in 1979. Her subject was the Magic pack and its decendents, the first wolf pack to recolonize Northwest Montana from Canada after a 50-year absence in the western United States.

Boyd would make a long career from her wolf research. She kept track of the North Fork’s wolves on and off for the better part of two decades, long after government funding had run out. She often volunteered her time, tracking wolves in between seasonal work with government agencies.

In the late ‘90s Boyd got away from wolf research and began working in the private sector, consulting on large scale private landscape conservation projects.

While she painted a bit in the ‘80s, she didn’t paint much at all for the next 20 years. It’s only been the last year or so that’s she’s really gotten back into the groove of creating art. 

Boyd lives in a 110-year-old two-room cabin, with no electricity or running water. If she wants to take a shower she has to go upstairs, put hot water in a barrel and the water gravity feeds down into the shower head.

“I can take a 15 minute shower with four gallons of water,” she said.

But the blessing of having no power is there are no distractions. No phone. No TV.

“I’ve just been painting,” she said. “It’s been glorious. Painting for me has always been a special hobby that’s grabbed my heart.”

She said she’s been doing more painting directly in the field, a technique called plein air.

“It’s an excellent way to learn,” she said.

Her background in biology and working with animals all her life has honed her ability to draw and paint creatures, but she admits her landscapes need refinement — at least to her eye.

“For me the impact is the landscape,” she said.

But her work is already drawing the attention of locals. She recently did a commissioned piece for longtime North Forker Larry Wilson of a grizzly bear and she’s currently working on another commission of a kayaker on Bowman Lake.

Boyd is enjoying her second career.

“As long as I can see and use my hands,” she said. “I’m going to paint.”

People interested in contacting Boyd can message her through her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/diane.boyd.332