Joel Ostlind

Joel Ostlind was born and raised in Wyoming.  He spent much of his life working cattle throughout the American West.  During those years he always had a sketchbook to record his intimacy with the land, the animals and people living on the land.

In 1990, he bid farewell to his cowboy days and moved with his family to Big Horn, Wyoming.  He built a studio and purchased an etching press.  His sketches found new life as copper plate etchings and paintings.

As an etcher, Ostlind works in the traditional manner, hand drawing imagery through a waxy coating onto a copper plate and then, etching the exposed lines with acid.  He hand inks and prints each image himself.

Of his paintings and etchings, Ostlind says, “I am working through my slice of life savoring the atmospheric volume, watching the light change by the hour, the seasons shift day by day.  The fun for me is trying to catch enough on canvas and on paper so that you will remember how the light really is, where the mountains are blue like that, why the songbird sings…”

Ostlind has exhibited annually in numerous shows. He was the featured artist at the Coors Western Art Exhibit in 2002.  His work is included in John T. Ordeman’s book, The American Sporting Prints: 20th Century Etchers and Drypointists (2007)  He is in the permanent collection at The Brinton Museum, Big Horn, Wyoming, and at the National Wildlife Museum in Jackson, Wyoming.  He is also represented by the Ann Korologos Gallery in Basalt, Colorado, the Simpson Gallagher Gallery in Cody, Wyoming, and the Bozeman Trail Museum in Sheridan, Wyoming.