She was known simply as Vivi
A skillful horse woman and hunter  who turned to wildlife art and found enormous success. She was gracious in her cowgirl hats, western skirts and boots.
Vivi Crandall's home was secluded on Casper Mountain, but her paintings were hot throughout the West, selling for up to $100,000. When she died of cancer April 30 at age 56, Vivi left a void in the lives of the people who knew her personally as well as those who captured her personality solely through her art.
"I don't think I even thought of the definition of life force until I met Vivi," say friend Kim Fedore. "She affected everyone she came in touch with. You never encountered a woman like this."

"The Eye of the Storm"

 
Humor & art Vivi's unique blend
"Vivi painted personality and soul into the animal," says friend Deb Penk Reeb. The Crandall's were professional hunting guides at one time, and thus Vivi knew animals anatomically. She touched them and experienced their texture, Reeb said.
"She was one of the first artist's that painted breath. You can see speed and the fog of a cold morning," and these are techniques that people now use, says Reeb, an artist who describes her own work as "graphic realism with a twist."
One of the most distinct things about Vivi's art is the funny titles.
"The I.R.S." (Irate Raging Sow) is a frighteningly furious grizzly bear looking ready to devour.

"Running on Empty" is a fierce, hungry-looking hunting lion. And a painting that's become a popular print to give newlyweds shows two devoted, cuddling wolves. It's called, "The Honeymooners."
Gary Crandall says she wouldn't start a piece until she had a title for it. "I don't think people realized what wildlife art looked like until this little blond kid started painting differently in Wyoming," Gary says.
In the past, similar art was done by scenic painters who depicted running or moving animals "in place and perfectly clear," say Gary. But in Vivi's work the parts of the animal that are moving are blurred so that you sense the motion.
Robert Bateman and James Bama were the first to paint photo-realism, and Bateman was the first to use the technique in wildlife art, Gary Said. Vivi expanded on Bateman's technique by tying it together with motion in the foreground and background, capturing as strongly as possible the animal itself.
The result for Vivi since the 1980s has been tremendous marketability and recognition for her artwork.
Several years ago she was chosen as the living legends artist of the foundation for North American Wild Sheep and painted a bighorn sheep entitled "Eye of the Storm." It sold for approximately $100,000 to a man in Cody WY, the highest amount for which she has sold an original, Gary said. "She wanted to do something exceptionally strong for the foundation."
Like most artists, she developed a signature with her work, says sculptor Chris Navarro, who owns about five of Vivi's pieces. "I can go to any gallery and see a piece of art and know she did it," he says.
Part of that signature is the way that Vivi painted the eyes of her subject. "The eyes of the cats are the most incredible," says Tom Hackings, owner of Art Editions in Salt Lake City. Hacking, a close friend of the Crandall's, has made almost all of Vivi's prints and other artwork. "If she walked into a room, she filled it right up," says Hackings of Vivi. "Everything happened when she walked in".
Hacking says he once asked Vivi why she painted the way she did. "I want to paint as close to what god created as I possibly can, " she told him.
Vivi was also a strong influence on other women breaking into the field. According to Reeb, it's unusual to see a "female artist do wildlife so well and achieve such hierarchy in the art world."
Not long before Vivi's death, a wildlife artist and owner of a gallery in Seattle thanked her for "opening the door for all female wildlife artist's," says Gary. "Even Vivi and I hadn't thought in those terms."