BACKCOUNTRY BRUSHWORK
A Luxury Camping Art Adventure with Madelynn Mutter
Step beyond the studio and into the heart of the West. Join Western oil painter Madelynn Mutter for an immersive art retreat where horses, cattle, cowboys, and the wide-open Montana landscape become your inspiration. Gather authentic references, study horses and the landscape from life, and experience the moments that make Western art so compelling firsthand. Through exclusive cowboy and horse modeling sessions, horseback rides, painting demonstrations, and guided studio time, you’ll learn to look beyond simply recreating a reference and instead discover the story, light, movement, and emotion within it. Madelynn will guide you through transforming those experiences into paintings filled with depth, intention, and feeling while helping you develop a stronger artistic voice of your own.
DATES
June 7th-12th, 2027
LOCATION
Foothills of the Beartooth Mountains
(pick-up in Billings, Montana)
PRICE
$4,000-$4,400
GROUP SIZE
9-11 Artists
EXPERIENCE THE WEST. THEN PAINT IT.
Includes:
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Five-Night All-inclusive Elevated Camping Experience (private or shared tents)
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Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, and Non-alcoholic Beverages
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Instruction and Demonstrations with Madelynn Mutter
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Horseback Riding through the Beartooth Mountain Foothills
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Exclusive Cowboy, Horse, Cattle, and Draft-horse Modeling Sessions
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Spring Cattle Branding & Ranch Reference-Gathering Opportunities
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Artist Workbook & Supply Welcome Gift
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Five-brush Richeson Fine Art sample set
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Live Music Around the Campfire
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Transportation to and from Billings, Montana
Artists will be responsible for bringing their own oil paints and certain personal painting supplies. Alcoholic beverages and gratuities are not included.
Shared Tent: $4,000 per person
Private Tent: $4,400 per person
Non-Artist Partners & Friends: $1,600 per person
An Immersive Western Oil Painting Retreat with Madelynn Mutter
Join Western oil painter Madelynn Mutter and Skyline Guest Ranch for a five-night immersive art retreat in the foothills of Montana’s Beartooth Mountains. Spend the week surrounded by horses, cattle, cowboys, sagebrush, and the everyday workings of ranch life while learning to see it all through the eyes of an artist.
This workshop goes beyond technique alone. Through horseback riding, drawing and painting from life, carefully designed cowboy and horse modeling sessions, ranch photography, demonstrations, studies, and guided studio time, Madelynn will help you discover what draws you to a subject and how to carry that feeling into a finished painting.
You’ll explore composition, color, value, equine anatomy, reference gathering, oil layering, and creating depth and form, but you’ll also dig deeper into the why behind your work. The goal is to leave not only a stronger painter, but a more intentional artist.
Some experience with oil painting is recommended, although artists of varying experience levels are welcome.
Painting with Purpose & Inspiration
The best Western paintings rarely begin in the studio. They begin with noticing.
The way afternoon light catches the back of a horse. The posture of a cowboy waiting quietly beside a herd. Dust hanging in the air after horses run past. The shape created when cattle gather together. The relationship between horse and rider that becomes apparent only after watching them work. Backcountry Brushwork is built around collecting those experiences firsthand.
Throughout the retreat, Skyline’s horses, cowboys, cattle, and spring ranch work become your subjects. You’ll sketch horses from life, photograph carefully arranged modeling sessions, watch working cowboys and draft horses, ride through the Montana foothills, and experience a traditional spring branding. Then you’ll take those moments back to the easel.
Madelynn will guide you through deciding which references are worth painting, identifying the story or emotion within them, developing studies, planning composition and value, understanding color relationships, and building an oil painting through intentional layers.
The purpose isn’t simply to return home with a finished canvas.
It’s to begin seeing the world around you differently.
EXPERIENCE → OBSERVE → PHOTOGRAPH → STUDY → PAINT
About the Foothills Experiences
For over sixty years, Skyline’s horses have spent their winters roaming the wide, rugged foothills of the Beartooth Mountains. It’s here, long before the summer trails open in Yellowstone National Park, that the work of Skyline truly begins. Horses are trained, cattle are tended, and life follows the timeless rhythm of the range. These new foothill experiences offer guests a rare behind-the-scenes look into that part of the Skyline story. They’re a chance to slow down, to learn, to connect with the land and the lifestyle that built this ranch.
Listed below is the tentative itinerary:
DAY 1
WELCOME TO COW CAMP
Your adventure begins in Billings, Montana, where Skyline will meet arriving guests and shuttle the group into our cow camp located about an hour from the airport. Once you arrive at camp, settle into your luxury white wall tents, explore your surroundings, and get your first glimpse of the horses and cattle that will become your subjects throughout the week. After dinner, gather with Madelynn and your fellow artists for an opening conversation about creativity and intention. You’ll talk about what inspires you to paint, the technical skills you hope to strengthen, and the deeper ideas you would like to communicate through your work. Together, you’ll begin thinking about the references, moments, relationships, light, and details you want to seek out over the coming days.
DAY 2
GATHER SOME INSPIRATION
After breakfast, saddle up for a morning horseback ride through the foothills. Partway through the ride, you’ll stop, pull out your sketchbook, and study the landscape from life. Madelynn will lead a conversation about what makes a subject exciting, what separates an interesting scene from compelling artwork, and how artists can become more observant of the world around them. Back at camp, turn your attention toward the horse itself. Spend time drawing or painting horses from life while studying equine anatomy, form, proportion, gesture, light, and movement. After an early dinner, cameras come out for your first dedicated Western modeling session. Watch Skyline cowboys and horses move across the landscape as you photograph action, relationships, dust, movement, and fleeting moments designed to become references for future paintings. Rather than working from staged stock imagery, you’ll begin building a personal reference library from experiences you actually witnessed.
DAY 3
FROM EXPERIENCE TO CANVAS
The morning begins with another exclusive reference-gathering session featuring working cowboys, cattle, horses, and draft teams.
Observe quietly, photograph freely, and pay attention to more than the obvious action. Madelynn will encourage you to look for gestures, interactions, interesting silhouettes, unusual compositions, and those quieter moments that often tell the strongest stories.
Afterward, gather for an oil painting demonstration as Madelynn walks through her process from reference to finished artwork.
Then it is your turn. Review the images you have gathered and begin identifying the reference that speaks most strongly to you. Before reaching for a large canvas, you’ll slow the process down with preliminary studies exploring color, composition, value, focal point, and intention. Why this image? What matters within it? What can be removed? What should be emphasized? What do you want someone else to feel when they see the finished work? Once the groundwork feels right, begin your painting.
DAY 4
BUILDING THE PAINTING
Today is dedicated to going deeper. Return to your painting with Madelynn nearby for instruction, critique, demonstrations, and individualized guidance. Learn how she layers oil paint to develop form and dimension while preserving softness, atmosphere, and emotion. Throughout the day, you’ll continue working through color relationships, edges, values, composition, and the balance between describing a subject accurately and allowing the painting itself to remain expressive. After an early dinner, weather and conditions permitting, saddle up for a short evening ride. Sometimes the best thing an artist can do for a painting is walk away from it for a little while. Spend an evening back among the subjects that inspired the work before returning with fresh eyes and a new perspective. Don't forget, the day will be filled with three amazing elevated campfire meals! After dinner, enjoy some live music around the campfire!
DAY 5
THE LAST STORY
Spend your final morning making thoughtful adjustments to your paintings, discussing what works, what could be strengthened, and what lessons you want to carry into your studio practice at home. Then trade brushes for cameras one last time. Spring branding offers an incredible final opportunity to study Western life in motion. Watch cowboys horseback gather and work cattle while documenting horses, calves, ropes, smoke, dust, movement, hands, expressions, and the countless small details that tell a much larger story about ranch life.
Use everything you have practiced throughout the week to search intentionally for references rather than simply taking photographs.
Return to camp with a new collection of inspiration for paintings that may continue long after the retreat has ended. That evening, gather together for your final dinner and celebrate a week spent creating, learning, riding, observing, and experiencing the West from inside the story.
DAY 6
UNTIL THE NEXT CANVAS
Enjoy one last breakfast together before packing your artwork, saying goodbye to camp, and beginning the trip back to Billings.
You may arrive with one painting in mind.
Our hope is that you leave with enough ideas for twenty more.
ELEVATED CAMPFIRE CUISINE
Meals in the foothills are a true highlight of this retreat, blending the nostalgia of old-fashioned camp cooking with an elevated Skyline twist. Using our over 100-year-old chuckwagon and a massive flattop grill, our camp chefs prepare three unforgettable meals a day, each one crafted to surprise and delight. Mornings begin with French toast sizzling on the griddle, cowboy coffee poured piping hot, and hearty sausage to fuel your day on the range. Evenings bring stunning entrées like elk tomahawk steaks, tender shishkabobs, and skillet-seared favorites served under the open sky. And no night is complete without a warm Dutch oven dessert — think apple dumplings, bubbling cobblers, and other sweet comforts that taste even better when enjoyed beside the campfire. This is camp cooking reimagined, where timeless tradition meets elevated flavor in the heart of the foothills.
MEET MADELYNN MUTTER
Western Oil Painter
Madelynn Mutter is a Northern Utah artist whose oil paintings explore the quieter, often overlooked moments of contemporary Western life.
Rather than idealizing the West, Madelynn finds inspiration in the reality of it: working horses, cattle, family ranches, dirt, effort, relationships, and everyday moments that carry a deeper sense of connection, grit, and nostalgia. Her process frequently begins by spending time with ranching families, gathering her own reference material, and allowing their lived experiences to influence the paintings that follow.
Madelynn studied illustration and has continued developing her oil painting practice through years of independent study, workshops, and learning alongside traditional painters. Her work has been featured by Southwest Art Magazine, including recognition in its 2024 21 Under 31 collection of emerging artists. She is represented by Western Skies Fine Art in Afton, Wyoming and Hemmings Gallery in Ketchum, Idaho, and is a member of Cowgirl Artists of America.
Her work often moves between realism and impressionism, using soft edges, subdued color, and deliberate composition to communicate far more than the physical subject alone.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Para obtener información sobre cómo reservar su propio retiro, contáctenos en:
(406) 838-2380