Growing up in Bozeman, MT and the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, I have a great appreciation of the unique qualities of this national treasure. I’ve been utterly entranced since my first visit, as a child, in the late 1960s, and I’ve never tired of going back. Yellowstone is never the same place twice. Its landscapes are constantly shifting as its steaming geysers, vibrant hot springs, and wide-open vistas change with light, weather, and time -- yet they are always unmistakably Yellowstone. These paintings invite you to see the park and the greater Yellowstone area through my eyes. Some are from sketches, some from photos I’ve taken, and some from both.
Scroll down and take a look! Enabled images will enlarge when you click on them.
As time and budget permit, I intend to turn many of these pieces into prints. If you’re interested in prints when they become available, or in the originals, please use the “contact” tab to let me know!
Hyalite Creek, Gallatin Range; Galen; watercolor, 18x29”; 2023
previously on exhibit at the Holter Museum of Art and at Montana Veterans’ Creative Arts Festival 2023; first prize, watercolor [original matted & framed, $1800; unmatted giclée print, $400, limited to 10 signed and numbered].
In the early fall of 2020, a large group hiked up to Hyalite Lake (not to be confused with Hyalite Reservoir) to scatter Tim Stiller’s ashes. He was a great photographer, one of my best friends, and the best man at my wedding. I saw this scene on the hike and took a photo, which was the basis for this painting (hiking with a group, there was no time to stop and sketch the scene).
The Hyalite Subrange falls within the Gallatin Range and in turn within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). GYE is one of the last remaining large, nearly intact ecosystems in the northern temperate zone of the US. Tim loved the GYE, loved photographing Montana’s mountains, and I’m sure that he would have loved this painting.
Above: Waterlilies, Yellowstone National Park; Galen; acrylic on canvas; 18 x 24 inches, 2022 Ghost Art Gallery award winner, Helena College Showcase 2023 [framed, $450]
While taking art classes at Helena College, one of our assigned paintings had to be a landscape… I immediately thought of a photo I’d taken during one of my innumerable trips to Yellowstone. I had spent quite a bit of time photographing sandhill cranes by this small lake, and snapped a few of the lake as well. The first photo I thought of wasn’t quite what I needed to paint the scene, so I referenced several others from that same trip, and this is the result.
Above: Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River; Galen; watercolor; 18x29 inches, 2023 [original matted & framed, $1600; unmatted giclée print, $400 - limited to 10 signed and numbered]
The Lower Falls… Ah, yes, the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, viewed from “Artist’s Point”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to get the perfect sketch or photo of the canyon and upper and lower falls from their various viewpoints… along with about a gazillion other artists. None of us has quite matched Thomas Moran’s sketches and incredible finished paintings ( he visited the park in 1871 and again iin 1892, with multiple paintings resulting), but we all cannot resist trying. None the less, I’m happy with how this one came out… and of course, like Moran, I will paint it again and again...
Firehole Spring, Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park (above), acrylic on canvasboard, 12x16”, Galen McAllister 2024 [unframed, $150]
In July of 2024, I decided that I should do a series of Yellowstone geysers and hot springs in acrylic. I painted a few before I had to shift focus to pen-and-inks for an upcoming exhibition (September 2024, at Queen City Framing and Art Supply - see the Helena in Pen and Ink page of this website), but returned to the subject in 2025. These photos don’t do justice to the effect of depth in the paintings of hot springs created by layers of glaze and paint, so if you visit Helena, you should look at them in the flesh! As of this writing (July 2025), many of these are on display in another show at Queen City; stop in.
BTW, I will be making 5x7 greeting cards of many of these in the near future.
Above: Silex Spring, Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, acrylic on canvasboard, 12x16”, Galen McAllister, 2024 [framed, $180]
Silex spring has also erupted as a geyser, with the last known eruption in j2006. This painting is included in my July 2025 Queen City show…( I confess: Because I intended it to be used for the show, I priced it fairly high until the show opened… on the assumption that it would not sell at the price and I’d still have it to help fill out the show!).
Above: Sapphire Pool, Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone National Park, acrylic on canvasboard, 12x16”, Galen McAllister, 2024 [unframed, $250]
I love colors in this one - the deep blues, the teal shallows, the orange rim (mats of “thermophile” bacteria), grey sinter, sap-green trees in the background, and white steam rising off the pool. In art terms, it’s almost ‘abstract-expressionist’ and yet it’s all representational and real…
Small un-named spring just east of Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, acrylic on canvasboard, 12x16”, Galen McAllister, 2024 [unframed, $150]
In addition to its more famous and named thermal features, Yellowstone is full of small, often charmingly colorful, springs… this is one. The yellows and rusty reds are mostly created by thermophilic bacteria; the green on the left is where the flow of water has cooled enough for algae to take over. There’s something very abstract about so much of the Yellowstone landscape…
Old Faithful with Bison, Yellowstone National Park, acrylic on canvasboard, 12x16”, Galen McAllister, 2024 [unframed, $160]
Of course I had to do the iconic “Old Faithful with Bison” painting!… For this one, I was thinking of the travel posters of the 1900s-1940s, commissioned to promote visiting Yellowstone by the Northern Pacific’s line to Gardiner, MT or the Union Pacific’s line to West Yellowstone, MT. Both travel options are long gone, but the vintage posters live on… I think I captured that zeitgeist reasonably well…
Great Fountain Geyser at dusk (steam phase), Yellowstone National Park, acrylic on canvasboard, 12x16”, Galen McAllister, 2024 [unframed, $225]
Great Fountain Geyser routinely erupts to heights of over 100 feet, and has been known to exceed 200 feet… but I find it to be at its most beautiful when it’s in its ‘steam phase’ and the terraced pools surrounding it reflect the surrounding landscape.
Above: White Dome geyser erupting at dusk, Yellowstone National Park, acrylic on canvasboard, 12x16”, Galen McAllister, 2025 [unframed, $150]
Just down the path and visible from Great Fountain Geyser, White Dome has built up a ‘geyserite’ cone (silicous sinter precipitated out of its mineral-rich water) around 12 feet tall. Its eruptions are much smaller, usually about 30 feet. Since it erupts about every half-hour, it keeps park visitors entertained while they wait for hours and hours for the next eruption of Great Fountain geyser (which erupts about twice a day).
Above: Cistern Spring, Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. 12x16”, Acrylic on canvas board, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025. Cistern Spring is part of the same natural “plumbing” system as Steamboat Geyser, the world’s tallest active geyser. When Steamboat erupts, Cistern Spring empties out nearly completely, gradually re-filling over the next few days with muddy water. After several weeks, it once again becomes clear. Cistern Spring has flooded the neighboring trees with silica-rich water, which gives the drowned trees their white bases. [framed, $190]
Above: Crested Pool, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. Acrylic on canvas board, 12x16”, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025
Named for the crest which has formed around its edge, Crested Pool is one of Yellowstone’s hottest springs. At around 199 degrees Fahrenheit (93C), which at 7330 feet elevation (2234m) is the boiling point of water, it’s often boiling vigorously - although not depicted as such here. [framed, $180]
Orange Mound Spring, Mammoth Hot Springs area, Yellowstone National Park. Acrylic on canvas board, 12x16”, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025. This painting depicts Orange Mound Spring in early spring, with snow still on the ground and a grey sky. The spring seems to be at its most colorful then, when its water flow is at its maximum. It took many thousands of years for precipitation of the water’s dissolved calcite to build this travertine mound. [framed, $260]
Silex Spring, close up, by Fountain Paint Pot trail, Yellowstone National Park (above). Acrylic on canvas board, 12x16”, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025. Many of Yellowstone’s features seem to me to become almost abstract expressionist when painted in a close-up view. [framed, $250]
Canary Spring, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park (above). Acrylic on canvas board, 12x16”, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025. I’ve been painting Mammoth since at least 1998, including several paintings of this section of its travertine terraces. It is never quite the same twice. $220
Bluebell Pool, West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. Acrylic on canvas board, 12x16”, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025. The boardwalk overlooking Bluebell Pool also offers beautiful views of Yellowstone Lake – although for this painting, I focused only on Bluebell Pool and its sister visible in the background, Seismograph Pool (the latter renamed from ‘Blue Pool’ after the 1959 Hebgen earthquake when many pools showed the effects of the tremors ). [framed, $180]
Blue Star Spring, Yellowstone National Park (above). Acrylic on canvas board, 12x16”, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025. A short distance from Old Faithful, Blue Star Spring is too hot for many thermophilic bacteria, which accounts for its deep blue color. Fairly small in size, it’s one of my favorite springs. The surrounding overhang of sinter shows why it’s a very bad idea to wander off the path in Yellowstone - step on that thin crust and you’d fall through into 190˚F (88˚C) water. In addition to the heat, some of Yellowstone’s hot springs are strongly acidic (pH as low as 1.9). Best to stay on the boardwalk…
Abyss Pool, West Thumb geyser basin, Yellowstone National Park. Acrylic on canvas board, 12x16”, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025. Aptly named for its appearance of seemingly endless depths (in reality only 53 feet), Abyss Pool is one of the more colorful hot springs. It briefly became a geyser from 1987 through 1992, but has returned to its tranquil state. [framed, $200]
Lone Star Geyser, Lone Star Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. Acrylic on canvas board, 12x16”, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025. Located at the end of a short (3mi) trail, south of Old Faithful, Lone Star erupts about every three hours. This view is of an eruption as shadows fall, in the early evening of a hot summer day. [framed, $180]
Cliff Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. Acrylic on canvasboard, 12x16”, Galen “Mac” McAllister, 2025. Cliff Geyser is named for… yep, the tiny “cliff” of geyserite (siliceous sinter) separating the geyser from the river gives this geyser its name. Proof that everyone sees things differently: I wasn’t all that happy with how this turned out, but my spouse thought it was one of the best… so here it is. [unframed, $100]
I have more paintings of Yellowstone and the GYE to put on this page, so come back soon!
Detail, Hyalite Creek, Gallatin Range