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.

Top-Award Winning Artist Returns to Autry

Curt Walters, the most distinguished landscape artist of our time, is gearing up for the first major Western Art show of the year, the 12th annual Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale.  Walters will be on hand at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles for the opening weekend events, beginning on Saturday, February 7, 2009, at 10:00am.

The artist first showed at the Masters show in 1999, when he was thrilled to receive the Patrons' Choice Award.  At last year's show, Walters was honored with the Trustee Purchase Award.  The winning piece, "Splendid Turmoil," is now a part of the Museum's permanent collection.

Walters will showcase four pieces this year, including a massive 50" x 80" oil-on-canvas, "Bright Angel Point."  One of his signature Grand Canyon pieces, this work was stirred to life by a weeklong painting hike at the North Rim of Grand Canyon.  In a rare move, the artist decided to include the field study of the same piece among his submissions.


For more than a decade, Walters has been an integral part of Western Art's Big 3 shows, Masters of the American West, Prix de West in Oklahoma City, and the Quest for the West show in Indianapolis.  In that time, he has won the Prix de West Purchase Award, an unprecedented double-win of the Frederic Remington Award in 2004 and 2005, six Patrons'/Buyers' Choice Awards, the Victor Higgins Work of Distinction Award, and the Artist of Distinction Award, among others.  The Artist of Distinction Award is celebrated with a special 90-day, one man show to be held at the Eitlejorg Museum in Indianapolis this September.

For more information about the Masters of the American West show or the Autry Museum, go to http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/masters2009/.

To view the Awards and Honors Curt has recieved over the years, please view his Picasa Photo Albums here.

Continuing an unprecedented decade, artist Curt Walters of Sedona, Arizona has won 2 more medals on Sunday, June 10th, from the Prix de West Art Exhibition and Sale, the western art genre’s most prestigious show. This pair brings Walters’ total to a staggering 6 -- and only one other artist has won more than three since 1995.

In years past, Walters has twice won the Nona Jean Hulsey Buyers’ Choice Award and an historic back-to-back win of the Frederic Remington Award for exceptional artistic merit, but this year he took home top honors with the Prix de West Purchase Award. More remarkably, the decision was unanimous among the judges. Walters was also bestowed with a third Nona Jean Hulsey Buyers’ Choice Award -- again, more than any other artist in the museum’s history. Walters was greeted with a five minute standing ovation when the announcement was made.

“Spring’s Caprice,” a 36” x 36” oil-on-canvas, was the Purchase Award winner, a rendition of Bright Angel Canyon from the South rim of Grand Canyon, near Maricopa Point. Walters has been known as the “greatest living Grand Canyon artist” for the past ten years, an honor he carries with a great sense of pride.

The Grand Canyon is more than just a place to set up an easel, however; Walters believes in giving back to Mother Nature, too. Only a week before the Prix de West show, Walters, as a board member, hosted a special fundraising dinner for the Grand Canyon Foundation. An adamant supporter of the Foundation as well as the Grand Canyon Trust, two groups instrumental to the preservation and maintenance of Arizona’s beloved national park, Walters passionately raises awareness in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars for these organizations.

Walters was presented with the Nona Jean Hulsey Award for “Ra’s Domain,” a massive 60” x 90” canvas that also features the Grand Canyon. It was Prix de West’s largest work submitted this year, capturing the famous Tower of Ra.

“Spring’s Caprice” will be the artist’s second addition to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s permanent collection. The first piece, “Snow Flurries Over the Rim,” was inducted this past December.

Curt Wins Quest for the West 2006

Artist Curt Walters of Sedona, Arizona is having a fabulous decade. Since 1998, the plein aire impressionist has received seven major awards from some of the country’s biggest shows, including Masters of the American West at the Autry National Center, Prix de West, and now the Quest for the West, presented by the Eiteljorg Museum of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Walters was granted the Best Overall Presentation award at Saturday night’s Banquet and Awards Ceremony. The award comes with a $4,000 prize, presented by long-time Indianapolis resident Betsy Harvey, which Walters donated back to the museum. The centerpiece of his presentation was “La Plata Thunder,” a 40” x 60” landscape of towering clouds rolling over the bluffs near Farmington, New Mexico. Unable to disappoint the fans who have long known him as the “Greatest Living Grand Canyon Artist,” Walters included two visions of the chasm, the 36” x 28” “A Diviner Air,” and the smaller “West From Lipan Point.” Rounding out the display was “Calf Creek Gorge,” part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Though this was the first annual Quest for the West, it was certainly no small event, and Walters had to be in top form. Attracting such artists as William Acheff, Martin Grelle, and Terri Kelly Moyers, it was no surprise to find sales for the event exceeding $1,000,000. Other winners included Dennis Doheny, who took home the Purchase Award for “Guardian of the Lake,” Robert Griffing who was awarded for Best Painting, and fellow Arizona artist Doug Hyde won for Best Sculpture. Other artists from The Grand Canyon State included Bill Anton, Matt Smith, John Coleman and William Scott Jennings.

When Walters is not painting, the artist gives much of his time, money and energy to conservation of Grand Canyon and the greater Colorado Plateau, raising almost one million dollars in sales and royalties in just a few short years. In Arizona, Walters’ work can be seen at the Trailside Gallery in Scottsdale. The Trailside Gallery of Jackson, Wyoming also features his canvases, as well as the Claggett/Rey Gallery in Veil, Colorado.