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| Tooby Burton, Former Artist in Residence, Old Faithful Inn |
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(right) Print, reproduced from 1983 watercolor by Tooby Burton. This painting represents the Old Faithful Inn as it looked soon after opening in 1904. The shingles had not yet been stained, and the roof was red, as depicted in this painting. |
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| IF YOU VISITED or worked at the Old Faithful Inn in the early to mid 1980s, you probably remember artist Tooby Burton. Mr. Burton and his wife had been employees of the park before he set up his small artist's work area in the corner of the lobby. Before coming to Yellowstone, Burton, a native of Rigby, Idaho, served in the Army and later studied art in Los Angeles. His years as an artist included involvement in commercial art and illustration as well as teaching classes in painting. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Tooby Burton, pictured here, was the Old Faithful Inn's "Artist in Residence" during much of the 1980s. Each of his paintings was original, and in most cases not duplicated as prints. This photograph was taken in June 1984. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| At the Old Faithful Inn, Tooby Burton painted primarily in watercolors, a medium he termed "a sort of romantic realism." His paintings were done during the day and often well into the evening as tourists passed by to watch or talk. Though he painted a range of Yellowstone subjects from animals to thermal features to park outhouses, two of his favorite subjects were the Old Faithful Inn and Old Faithful Geyser. He often reflected events of the day in his paintings: When, in 1982, the Old Faithful Inn had just been reshingled and not yet stained its usual dark brown color, his paintings of the Inn showed unstained siding (see below). If clouds on a particular day were large and dark, that might well be how they appeared in his paintings that day. Though he had painted Old Faithful countless times, Burton still on occasion ran outside to see the geyser in action and observe some previously unnoticed detail. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 10X14 watercolor of the Old Faithful Inn, 1982 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 5X7 watercolor of the Old Faithful Inn, Aug 1982 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| (left) 10X14 watercolor of the Old Faithful Inn, Aug. 1982 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| (left) 10X14 watercolor of the Old Faithful Inn and Geyser, 1984 |
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