A winner of many awards, Jackson Hole artist Kay Stratman received her BA in Art at Minnesota State University-Moorhead in 1978, and worked as
a graphic designer in Minneapolis. She has studied under several Asian brush painting masters and since 1987 has been a professional fine artist, specializing in a watercolor style which she describes as Asian influenced, mixed with her Western experience. Kay's home in Wyoming inspires her to share her enthusiasm about the outdoors and conservation with people far beyond its borders.

Accomplishments are two "Best Wyoming Artist" awards at the annual Watercolor Wyoming national juried exhibit and achieving "Signature Member" status of the Wyoming Watercolor Society, as well as acceptance into Women Artists of the West. In 2024 Kay was the winner of the Spirit of Wyoming competition, sponsored by the Wyoming Arts Council and Jackson Hole Still Works.

Kay says: "I love the feeling of a wet brush on the smooth surface. My challenge is to master two opposites - control and spontaneity - and blend them successfully in one painting. My goal is that no matter how simple a painting may appear at first glance, the viewer will find something new each time they look at it. Conservationist, naturalist and philosopher Aldo
Leopold wrote: “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.” I cannot.

This painting, titled A Magical Morning, represents the magical, but not uncommon, sunrises one experiences in Jackson Hole. One of our favorite mountains, Sheep Mountain, also known as the Sleeping Indian, is such an iconic subject silhouetted in front of the everchanging morning sky.