10 Years of Conservation Through Art

October of 2004 marks a major milestone for artist Curt Walters of Sedona, Arizona: 10 years of successful crusading against pollution in and around the Grand Canyon. While honing the skills of a plein-aire impressionist through the ‘70s and ‘80s, his passion for location painting and strict attention to detail inadvertently captured the worsening air quality over the whole of the Colorado Plateau. Concerned, Walters was moved to action.

Finding worthy ideals with the Grand Canyon Trust, Walters utilized his forte and put brush to canvas for their cause. In October of 1994, the Trust chose the artist to create a commemorative painting for the 75th anniversary of Grand Canyon as a National Park, accepted on behalf of the National Park Service by Robert Arenberger, then Superintendent of Grand Canyon, and attended by Bruce Babbitt. Walters then licensed the 30” x 60” oil-on-canvas, titled “National Treasure,” for reproduction on everything from postcards to posters, and donated all proceeds from park sales directly to the Trust. He has also pledged a percentage from each sale of Grand Canyon images to the organization. To date, his contributions have garnered over half a million dollars for the Grand Canyon Trust.

In addition to financial and artistic donations, he also gives freely of his time, organizing educational forums and fundraising trips among his peers. In 1999, Walters invited 14 fellow artists on an 8-day, 88-mile painting excursion through Grand Canyon on the Colorado River. Dozens of the 200-plus pieces produced were contributed to the Trust after a special showing at the Forbes Magazine Galleries in New York, bringing in well over $200,000 for the conservation organization. In June of this year, Curt Walters and Deborah Tuck, President of the Grand Canyon Foundation, shared the podium at the Prix de West Art Exhibition and Sale in Oklahoma City, giving a speech and video presentation about the conservation of all the park’s natural and historic resources. Walters serves as a boardmember of the Grand Canyon Foundation alongside the likes of Sen. John McCain.

At this year’s Prix de West, Walters’ 48” x 78” “Apache Walls” earned him top honors, winning the coveted Frederic Remington Painting Award. He has also been the recipient of many Buyers’ Choice Awards from Prix de West, Denver’s Artists of America and the Autry Museum’s Masters of the American West shows.

Though best known as a Western landscape impressionist--in fact, he is often labeled as “the greatest living Grand Canyon artist”--Walters takes time each year to stretch his artistic legs and enjoy painting holidays all over the Pacific Islands, Europe and the Middle East. Most recently, he revisited the Forbes’ Chateau de Balleroy in Normandy, France.

Walters’ Grand Canyon and international paintings can be found at the Trailside Galleries of Scottsdale, AZ and Jackson, WY, where the artist has been represented now for 25 years. He will unveil his newest masterpiece at the Scottsdale gallery this Saturday, the 23rd of October. Other galleries include the Altermann Galleries in Santa Fe, NM, Pitzer’s of Carmel, Carmel, CA, and in Hilton Head, SC at the Morris Galleries. Some of the artist’s avid collectors are Christopher Forbes, Frank Borman, Kareem Abdul Jabar, Kathie Lee Gifford and the late Robert Urich.

For more information on Curt and his upcoming events, please visit the website.

Artist Curt Watlers Celebrates 10 Years at Prix de West

Friday, June 8, marks the 34th annual Prix de West invitational, and will embrace more than 100 artists, including every past winner, so Curt Walters, of Sedona, Arizona, is going to have to be in top form. Preparing for his 10th year with the exhibition at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Walters has prepared what proves to be the largest piece of the show, a 60” x 90” Grand Canyon interpretation titled “Ra’s Domain.”

This substantial showpiece “embodies some of my favorite canyon themes,” Walters says. “The challenge of such a large canvas is to examine that which I love and fear. Here, great earthen temples named for the Egyptian Gods speak to us of eternity. We see the Tower of Ra keeping watch over a land of extremes: sun versus shadow; reason versus imagination; simplicity versus complexity; and, yes, even love versus fear. Grand Canyon perfectly embodies these disparate factions that compose everyday life.”

The artist’s repertoire for this year includes a second Grand Canyon, “Spring’s Caprice,” 36” x 36”, and two pieces from his trip to Banff and Yoho National Parks in Canada last year. The 10” x 12” “Bow Lake” captures Bow Glacier, headwaters for the Bow River, and “Afternoon at Lake O’Hara,” 12” x 12”, is one of three works at this year’s show to feature the quiet Canadian lake. The other two are by friend and fellow hiker John Moyers, who actually introduced Walters to the secluded location.

Curt Walters has won a remarkable four medals from Prix de West over his past nine years, more than any other artist in the museum’s history. Awarded the Nona Jean Hulsey Buyers’ Choice Award his very first year, Walters was again honored with the same award in 2002. Then, in 2004 and 2005, the artist was bestowed with an unprecedented back-to-back win of the Frederic Remington Painting Award. Walters has also received Patrons’ Choice Awards from the Masters of the American West expo at the Autry National Center and the Artists of America show in Denver. Last year he was honored with the Best Overall Presentation at the star-studded, first annual Quest for the West show at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. He is also featured in the June/July issue of Art Talk.

When Walters is not busy with art shows, he devotes time to his other great passion, conservation of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau. Through personal donations of profits and paintings, and time devoted to fund-raising events and special seminars, Walters has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Grand Canyon Trust and the Grand Canyon Foundation, where he sits on the board of directors.

Walters has been represented by the Trailside Galleries of Scottsdale, AZ, and Jackson, WY for more than 25 years. His work can also be found at the Claggett/Rey Gallery in Vail, Co, and the Morris Gallery of Hilton Head Island, SC.