LOCAL MASTER ARTIST WINS BIG SHOW

The Arborists' Reward • 28" x 28"

Curt Walters of Sedona, Arizona, has been honored again at the Eiteljorg Museum's Quest for the West art show. The Master Artist was pleasantly surprised with the Henry Farny Award for Best Painting, for "The Arborists' Reward."

The 28" x 28" oil painting came to life at Garland's Oak Creek Lodge in Sedona this past Spring. Walters' has made it his mission to paint as many of the old Sedona homesteads and orchards as possible before they are gone.

For more than a decade, Walters has been known as the "Greatest Living Grand Canyon Artist." However, this award for a non-Canyon piece reflects a growing appreciation for his other subjects.

Held in Indianapolis, Indiana, the annual art show featured "Moment and Monument" last year, a special one-man, 20-year retrospective of Walters' work, hosted specially for his 2008 Victor Higgins Artist of Distinction Award.

Walters has won a total of six awards from Quest for the West, in addition to six from the Prix de West show at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, which includes the Prix de West Purchase Award. He has won Patrons' Choice Awards from the Salmagundi Club's American Masters, Denver's Artists of America, and Masters of the American West at the Autry National Center in L.A., where he was also the recipient of the Trustee's Purchase Award.

Next year, Walters and sculptor Veryl Goodnight will team up for "The Rendezvous," a special two-person show to be held at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

His work is found in museums and public and private collections throughout the world, including the Forbes Magazine Gallery, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, astronaut Frank Borman, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, and the Leanin' Tree Museum.

His paintings are available at the Trailside Galleries of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Jackson, Wyoming, the Claggett/Rey Gallery in Vail, Colorado, and at his online gallery at curtwalters.com.