Artist Biography
Born in Billings, Montana in 1941, Theodore Waddell studied art at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York in 1962-63 and received a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Montana College in 1966. In 1968, he received a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture and Printmaking from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. In 1968, Waddell joined the University of Montana's Art Faculty and retired from teaching in 1976.
Soon after, he began working in Montana as a rancher and an artist, and his work reflects the influences of both professions. His art career took off in 1983 when he was invited to exhibit his work in the prestigious Corcoran Biennial 38th Survey of American Art. In 2004, he was honored at the White House for his work with the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program, which exhibits his work in various U.S. Embassies around the world.
Waddell’s abstract impressionistic rendering of real subject matter reflects the American experience of living in the West and his love of the land. His work is found in private, and corporate, collections throughout the world and is currently exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the western United States. He is a past recipient of the Governor’s Arts Award from the state of Montana, and in 2015, he received Artist of the Year honors from the Yellowstone Art Museum. In 2017, a major retrospective celebrating his career, “Theodore Waddell, My Montana” was published by Riverbend Publishing.
Today, Waddell and his wife, Lynn Campion, reside in Hailey, Idaho, where he continues to paint almost daily.
Whether Waddell is studying the changing seasons, animals as individuals, or the later figures, one can see his magic in his reverence for nature and celebration of paint. He is a painter's painter: strong hearted, sure handed and high spirited."
-Jennifer Complo, McNutt Curator of Contemporary Art, Eiteljorg Museum