Walking through the upper levels of The Monument during the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo, there’s a moment where the noise fades a bit. You step into a room filled wall to wall with paintings. Horses mid-stride. Cowboys caught in quiet moments. Wildlife rendered with an almost photographic stillness. That’s where The Second Shift’s Stitch, Leslie and Houston ran into David Graham and his collection of Western and wildlife art.
Graham, a western oil painter from eastern Montana, had set up a striking display that immediately stopped people in their tracks. His work pulls heavily from life in the Northern Plains, and it shows in every brushstroke.
“I’m from eastern Montana,” Graham said, explaining that he splits his time around Glendive and Miles City. That background matters. His art doesn’t feel imagined or borrowed. It feels lived in.
“I love painting Western subjects,” Graham said. “I paint Native Americans, wildlife from all over the region here. And cowboy and horse art, too.”
That focus came early. Growing up in a ranching family left its mark, long before oil paints entered the picture.
“I grew up in a ranching background,” he said. “My family’s come from agricultural roots. And so from an early age I was drawing horses and cowboys and Indians and all the stuff from the old West.”
Those early sketches eventually turned into something more serious after a few art classes in high school introduced him to oil painting. Even then, the path wasn’t exactly linear.
“I got a business degree in college,” Graham said. “And then I decided, you know, now’s the time to try being a self-employed artist. So I forget the degree. I know what I want to do.”
Oil paint is non-negotiable for him.
“Yes, I’m strictly oil,” Graham said. “I love the flexibility, able to rework paintings. And I like oils because they stay wet and you can blend your edges. I love mixing colors, so I use lots of color.”
That flexibility shows up in how real the paintings feel. Some pieces look almost like photographs at first glance, something Graham hears often from people walking through the exhibit.
“I have people ask if some are photographs,” he said. “And I think it might be the way I paint each one, and some of the lighting just makes one look more photographic.”
Others are intentionally looser, with visible brushstrokes and softer edges.
“I approach every scene just a little bit differently,” Graham said.
Most of his work starts in the field, camera in hand.
“I work from photographs,” he explained. “So I go out and take a lot of all my own reference photos and come back and compose paintings. I might switch backgrounds out and paint different figures in.”
While much of his work is studio-based, the landscapes themselves come from familiar ground.
“I would say mostly Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota,” Graham said. “Some are mountains. Some are badlands from the Powder River and Yellowstone area in Montana.”
Not all of the paintings are distant or anonymous, either. Some carry personal history.
“Yes, I do paint some family,” Graham said. “I’ve got family still in ranching. And so some of them are in some of the paintings, my dad and sister and her family.”
When asked about favorites, Graham didn’t point to technical achievements or sales numbers.
“I’d say the ones that are most special probably have memories to some of my past,” he said, referencing paintings connected to his family and the land where he grew up.
By the time Houston talked with him, Graham had already moved a noticeable number of pieces.
“Probably sold a good twenty prints,” he said, adding that he kept rearranging the display as pieces sold.
Visitors looking to find Graham’s work during the Stock Show could find him on the second floor of The Monument. As Houston put it, “If you get off the escalator, come down a few feet and take a left. You’ll see a giant room full of paintings, and you’ll find David here kind of back in the corner.”
It’s the kind of exhibit that rewards slowing down. The paintings don’t shout. They sit quietly, confident in the stories they’re telling.
And they all come from a place Graham knows well.
