A native of Denver, Colorado, Michael Untiedt is a painter of western landscape, whose subjects often feature the prairie scenes he has loved since spending time as a youth with his farmer grandfather on the eastern plains of Colorado.

Untiedt studied at the University of Denver but wearied of the art department's obsession with Abstract Expressionism. In the mid 1970s, he left school, bought an old truck, and traveled the country, teaching himself to draw and paint along the way. Eventually he returned to school and earned a degree in industrial arts and became a middle-school shop teacher.

In 1987, when the Art Students League of Denver formed, he became one of the first students and studied with and became an assistant to watercolorist Buffalo Kaplinski. Untiedt credits him as a major influence in his choices of color and reliance upon good drawing. Several years later, he made the transition to oil painting, and felt confident enough to describe himself as a professional painter.

He works from a studio in a 100 year old house near downtown Denver, living with his wife, Donna, and their two children. He travels extensively in the West and Midwest and paints landscapes, often en plein air, that reflect the mysticism of nature.