Artist wins Wyoming Game and Fish Department's annual Conservation Stamp Art competition with a Ruffed Grouse painting

by Dan Sanderson-Staff Writer

An image of ruffed grouse, plucking berries off of trees over the AuSable River, has garnered a national award for a Grayling wildlife artist and downtown gallery owner.

Kim Diment won first place in the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Conservation Stamp Art competition for a painting she did of ruffed grouse called "Dine and Dash."

Diment learned that the ruffed grouse was the animal for the 2014 Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Conservation Stamp Art competition while she was in the state last fall for a workshop.

The Susan Kathleen Black Workshop and Arts Conference hosts between 50 to 150 plein air artists, who paint out in the field, every year. Black was a nature artist. The workshop was founded by Black's husband, Jim Parkman, as tribute to Black after she died from cancer. The workshop is a means to support a foundation and other efforts  to advance art education in Black's honor.

"It's a beautiful location along with being an area, where you can do a lot of photography if you want to do that because there are animals everywhere and great things to photograph," Diment said.

After the workshop, Diment was taking reference photos of animals in the Grand Teton National Park, when she captured a photo of a family of ruffed grouse. A friend informed her that ruffed grouse was selected as the subject matter for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Conservation Stamp Art competition.

Ironically, the image Diment used for the winning painting was captured outside her home art studio, overlooking the AuSable River. Oak, hawthorn trees  and wild crab apple trees are located on the banks of the river and the surrounding property.

"The ruffed grouse keep coming in to feed as long as the berries are there," Diment said.

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