Sharp began painting Native American portraits and village scenes on the northern Plains about 1900. He wintered in a cabin on the Crow Reservation and noted:

“I had a sheep and cattle herders commissary wagon — took everything out except stove. Put in sky and side lights. 6 X 12 outside and could stand or sit to paint. Haul it to different localities and get several canvases each place. Painted night and moonlight also –– good big lantern behind me. Generally work outside until cold froze the paint, then in and fired up.”

Sharp would then return to Taos each summer, before moving there permanently in 1912.