Tom Waugh is self-taught and has been making a living in the art business for 18 years. He lives in northeast Wyoming on a secluded ranch in a log cabin he built by hand, cutting his own logs etc. Tom has a studio near his house. He also has an adobe hut in the desert 9 miles west of Taos, New Mexico where he paints and lives on and off in the summer.

Tom has been represented by the Bent Gallery in Taos since 1989. Tom is also represented by the prestigious Bozeman Trail Gallery in Sheridan; Wyoming, Meadowlark Gallery in Laurel, Montana; Bear All the Time Gallery, Crow Agency, Montana; Historical Rarities, Garryowen, Montana; Thomas Minkler Gallery, Billings, Montana; Custer Battlefield Trading Post and Gallery, Billings, Montana; and Rogues Gallery, Hulett, Wyoming.

Tom was born In 1948 in Deadwood, South Dakota and grew up near Devils Tower, Wyoming and Hot Springs, South Dakota. He attended Chadron State College in Nebraska and majored in beer drinking and quit after a year saying, "they had nothing to offer me, I knew it all!" He then married an Indian girl and lived with the Sioux Indians. He was a policeman for 8 years in Hot Springs, South Dakota and had 2 children. He later married a white girl, bought a saloon that he ran for a couple of years, sold it, and went to work as a railroader building the railroad in Wyoming. He moved to the family ranch near Devils Tower. He hand built a log cabin, cutting his own trees and building it the old time way, no electricity or running water and raising his first 2 kids and 2 new ones. That was in l979. Five years later he got water and electriciy. Tom quit his job and became the Town Marshal of Hulett. He did this for five years all the time painting and drawing in his studio and collecting Indian art, fine art, and antiques. He also collected books, to the tune of over a thousand, using them to study and hone his natural talent as an artist. He once again quit his job and went into the art business full time and has never looked back.

18 years later he's still painting and making a living answering to no man! Tom does a lot of plein-aire painting, painting outside, studying the landscape, and traveling. He has written a few historical stories for a Wyoming newspaper and had one of his political cartoons mentioned in the New York Times. Tom is a prolific painter and so began selling his work on Ebay. He won 1st place ribbons in every art show he ever entered in the Black Hills area. Tom is a recluse and now only does one art show a year in Great Falls, Montana, home of the famous C.M. Russell Show. That's all he can take "prostituting his art," as he puts it.

Tom is 52 years old and often says "To be able to make a living at what you love is no small thing. There are painters that are better than me and there are some who are worse and if I cash in tomorrow I'm betting I won the hand." Tom, who is quite eccentric and sometimes quite mad, is often heard ranting "I live and have lived my art. I'm not no limp-wristed wine and cheese artist and I don't paint from pictures in magazines or photos. I paint from my experiences and from nature. If someone likes what they see and buys it, that's great. Otherwise, remember I paint for myself first. If my work moves someone else then I must be doing something right."