05/09/2026
A Tribute to Ted Turner.
I first met Ted Turner through my good friend and former superintendent of Yellowstone National Park Mike Finley and over the years Ted became someone I deeply admired - not only as a giant in business and a media pioneer, but as one of the greatest conservation leaders this country has ever known.
This photograph was taken when Ted came to visit me during my Safari Club International exhibition years ago. I had introduced him to the Speaker of the House Ole Francis Kaparo whom i was hosting to the USA to review the North American Wildlife Model as Kenya was in the process of overhauling their wildlife policy. We talked africa, CNN and fun stories about their time in africa as we had designed the Safari Adventure for the Turner Foundation’s Board which included all of Teds family and Mike Finely.
Through Ted’s generosity, I was invited to his legendary Flying D Ranch in Montana, home to one of America’s great bison herds. Those experiences fundamentally shaped me as an artist. As a realist and storyteller, you need close intimate encounters to truly understand the character of an animal - and Ted and his amazing ranch manager Danny Johnson, gave me that opportunity to know Bison like few people ever had.
Many of my bison paintings were born from those research trips, including the Large commission having in the Warren Miller Lodge at the Yellowstone Club titled "Cold Air, Deep Powder”, and later "Under a Wolf Moon” now hanging in a private Castle in Texas.
Ted understood something many people never fully grasp: conservation begins with acquiring the land and then with stewardship and giving the land what it needs thrive. This gives wildlife space and a fighting chance. At one point the largest private landowner in America, he used that responsibility to protect wild places and iconic species like the American bison.
I can categorically say Ted Turner made me a better painter of the American West!
He was a maverick, a visionary, and one of the best friends the natural world could ever have.
We’ll miss you, Ted… thank you for changing the world for the better and we’ll see you on the high ground.
John Banovich
