Ginny Butcher returned to painting after many years, reconnecting with a creative impulse first sparked in childhood. Her mother, a former artist in Boston, taught her the basics of drawing, with a focus on the figure. But it wasn’t until Butcher moved from New Hampshire to Wyoming in her mid-twenties that her interest in landscape painting began to take shape. A decade later, she started painting in earnest. She has always been drawn to the outdoors, and the western landscape remains her favorite subject. Where some see vastness as empty, she sees it as generous and full of promise. Her aim is not to replicate a scene, but to share the emotional presence of a place.Butcher works primarily from life, using plein air studies and simple materials like gouache to test color and composition before committing to larger paintings. She works with a limited palette to maintain harmony and prefers to pause near the end of each piece, placing it on what she calls her “scrutinizing shelf” until the next step becomes clear. Her approach is rooted in observation, simplification, and reflection. She has lived in Glendo, Wyoming, since age twenty-five, when she arrived alone and spent a month living in a tent by the lake. Her mother encouraged her to stay a year before deciding anything. She never left. Outside the studio, Butcher enjoys remodeling homes, finding satisfaction in restoring what has been overlooked and bringing it back to life.