About the Artist

About the Artist

Montana Wildlands is a family-run project based in Helena, Montana, created to share the wildlife artwork of artist Jim Stevens. For more than 35 years, Jim has painted the landscapes, animals, and backcountry moments of the Northern Rockies, drawing inspiration from a lifetime spent traveling the mountains and working in the country he now captures on canvas.

His artwork reflects real places across Montana—elk along familiar ridgelines, wolves moving through timber at dusk, and quiet wilderness scenes shaped by changing seasons and long experience outdoors. Many pieces also include a hidden weasel subtly worked into the composition, a small signature detail that has become part of the collection’s identity.

Montana Wildlands began as a family effort to make these pieces available beyond our immediate community while keeping production close to home. Today, each print is prepared locally in Helena, with custom framing handled in-house, preserving the connection between the artwork and the place that inspires it.

A Life in the Montana Backcountry

Long before Montana Wildlands existed, Jim’s time in the mountains shaped the perspective behind his artwork. Years spent hunting, trapping, working predator control, and traveling remote country across Montana gave him a firsthand understanding of the wildlife and landscapes he later painted.

A longtime friend once described him as one of the last true mountain men—a sentiment reflected in the portrait and poem shared below. These words were written by someone who knew him through decades of shared time in the backcountry and offer a glimpse into the experiences behind the scenes that now appear throughout this collection.

So Many Years Ago

I remember the first time I met him
He had just arrived in town
I was working at a truck stop in Helena at the time
And he come in for coffee and sat down
He said he was from the state of Iowa
And decided to move out west
’Cause he heard the hunting and trapping in Montana was nothing but the best
I knew from our conversation that he was different as could be
He said he wanted to work as a trapper, so he could be in the mountains and free
In the years that followed he pursued his career, and become one of the greatest mountain men to come along in years
His fame as a trapper spread throughout the west
And anyone who knew him said he was the best
He could track a cougar without the aid of a hound
And outsmart wolves and grizzly bears and hunt without a sound
He could hike the mountains and keep up with Billy goats
And when any shooting had to be done, he got everybody’s vote
He was a man of nature, but had other talents too
Painting and drawing pictures was something he sure could do
A sunrise or sunset would stop him in his tracks
And he would preserve the scene to memory so he could keep going back
On his next painting you might see mountains and trees, and there would be that sunrise or sunset for everyone to see
He become quite a taxidermist, I don’t know how he made the time
And he would always pitch in to help his buddies, so they could save a dime
He loved to play his guitar while howling out some notes
And having a beer with all his friends and listening to their jokes
Then the state of Montana hired him for predator control
And he worked with them for many years, even though the pay was low
I think he knew all the ranchers and farmers everywhere
And when he went on their place, they could tell he really cared
He would check out their predation, and make a set or two
And in no time he would have things under control
And the predators knew it too
One day the feds hired him to patrol
They admitted they screwed up and restocked wolves
And now they were out of control
For lots of years now our trapper friend has been seeing to their demise
And now he is getting on in years and it’s time to realize
That the Billy goats are getting faster and the guns don’t shoot as straight
And it's getting harder to open gates
The hair is growing whiter and the eyes are growing dim
One day he will have to retire but it won’t be the end of him
He will go on hunting and trapping for himself I’m sure
And continue hiking the mountains that brought him out here
He don’t realize that he has become a legend, as trappers and mountain men go
That he could stand tall and rub shoulders with the likes of
Jim Bridger, Liver Eating Johnson, Jedediah Smith, Frohner and Freeman just to name a few
Of course he is too humble to know these things, but I’m here to tell him so
I’m so proud to call him my friend
And glad I met him in that truck stop
So many years ago.

— C. A. Grande

The Story Behind Montana Wildlands

I’m Lennon, and I created Montana Wildlands to help bring my grandfather’s artwork to a wider audience while keeping its production rooted here in Helena. Growing up around both the artwork and the landscapes that inspired it, this project became a natural way to preserve and share something that has always been part of our family.

Today, Montana Wildlands continues as a family partnership. Jim creates the original paintings, his daughter, my mom, builds custom frames for select pieces, and I manage the production and presentation of the collection. Together, our goal is simple: to share artwork that reflects the spirit of the mountains and the American West with people who feel a connection to this country.

Whether displayed in a home, cabin, or lodge, each piece is meant to carry a small part of Montana’s backcountry into everyday spaces.