The call of the canyon may just be a melancholy echo for some, but for prolific painter Curt Walters, the call of the canyon is much more.
Walters is known as the “Grand Canyon Painter,” a title he has grown accustomed to, though he said he would rather be recognized as an American painter.
“That is who I am and what I am, however, my career has spanned a lot of subject matters — not just one subject. So, it’s broader than the Grand Canyon, but if you have to get tagged with something, I guess that is as good as anything,” he said.
Walters has been enamored with the Grand Canyon for over 52 years. He first visited the Grand Canyon in 1969, right after high school.
“My father bought me this amazing car, hoping that would keep me in Farmington, N.M., where I grew up,” he said. “But it didn’t work. I moved into an apartment I barely could afford, got a job busing tables at the little coffee shop and took my tip money — $10 in quarters — and drove off to see the Grand Canyon.”
He said each time he visits, which is quite often, the canyon is never the same.
“My first paintings were not that good. I went through a period where I was trying to figure out how to paint the Grand Canyon. I emulated the work of Thomas Moran and Wilson Hurley, painters who I admired,” he said.
Walters said the colors of the canyon change depending on the weather, time of day and seasons, creating different hues on the canyon walls.
“It’s always different. I have never seen it look the same way twice. I am into atmospheric conditions and I am religious about checking the weather forecast every morning to see what is going on at the Grand Canyon. If it’s really stormy, I will head in that direction,” he said.
It is not unusual for Walters to get up at 2 a.m. and head to the Grand Canyon with his partner of 38 years, Tom Dailey.
On each trip to the canyon, Dailey will hike with Walters, sometimes as much as 6 miles or more, before the perfect spot is chosen. He will then take photos and videos documenting Walters as he sketches or paints.
“Tom likes to go with me. If he can, he does, but a lot of days I will go up there by myself and spend the day painting and drive back that evening,” he said.
Dailey’s photography and videos have been an essential element in documenting his career. A few years ago, Walter’s daughter, Miranda Foreman created a film about her father’s journey. “Painting the Air: The Life and Art of Curt Walters,” was screened at the Sedona International Film Festival. The film was cathartic for Walters — and a proud moment — as he spoke about his life and his childhood struggles with dyslexia.
Painting as Storytelling
“Somewhere in the mix of creating that painting, all the stuff that I tend to fear inside bubbles up and comes to the surface. As I am painting, I won’t know what it means at that moment, but I will later,” Walters said. “If there is one painting that truly describes how I was feeling at the moment, this is it.”
Walters is referring to his entry to this year’s Prix de West, “Antagonistically Beautiful,” which he said was very melancholy. The canyon was filled with wildfire smoke, and barely visible, unlike most of Walter’s paintings.
“I was expressing my feelings of confinement — especially during COVID-19,” he said. “It is also a statement about the condition of the forest with climate change. Smoke was coming in from the California forest fires. We had a summer without rain. In that painting, there was something so beautiful yet devastating.”
Walters said half of the audience at Prix de West understood the painting, while the other half just looked at the aesthetic, noting it was impressionistic.
Prix de West
Walters has made history at the annual Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Walters won the Jackie L. Coles Buyers’ Choice Award at the 2019 Prix de West for his Grand Canyon painting, “A Chasm Sublime: Plateau Point.” Previously at Prix de West, Walters had won the Buyers’ Choice Award a record seven times. He also won the Frederic Remington Award back-to-back in 2004 and 2005, and again in 2013
He earned a double win in 2007 for the Buyers’ Choice Award for “Ra’s Domain” and the Prix de West Purchase Award for “Spring’s Caprice,” — the only time in the history of the show that an artist has won two awards for different paintings in the same show.
“I have won 13 awards at Prix de West — I am just incredibly fortunate. I am honored, so honored, that they like my work,” he said.
However, for 33 years, prior to winning an award at Prix de West, Walters was told that he was not allowed to be at the prestigious awards event because of his lifestyle.
Walter’s mentor, teacher and friend, Wilson Hurley, one of America’s premier landscape painters, warned him that although he won the Buyer’s Choice Award in 2002 for “Grandeur Besieged,” he would never win the Prix de West Purchase Award.
When Walters claimed that prize and another award, Hurley gave him a hug and congratulated him.
“I was hurt because I had spent 33 years trying to paint by their rules and now [after finally winning this award], I was free to paint the world the way I feel it should be painted,” he said.
Painting Work Ethic
Walters says that he paints every day, for a minimum of 12 hours a day. As he pre-mixes his oil paints, using the colors that he will use in his palette, Walters visualizes his painting before he begins. Once he picks up his paintbrush and touches the canvas, he is transported into the artist’s zone — where time does not exist.
“One of the greatest questions in the history of art is, ‘when do you know that your work is finished?’” he asked. “Never. At some point, you have to say that is enough and it is hard to stop — I will start obsessing and I have to force myself to quit. If I have repainted it three times or if a painting hangs around too long, I will inevitably start repainting it.”
Some of Walters’ collectors live in Sedona, giving him a chance to go back and look at his work with a different set of eyes.
“Once they leave the studio, rarely do I see those paintings again — it’s a thrill to go back to see them. I tend to forget the battle of creating that painting, and there comes a point that I can look at the painting through different eyes and I can admire it.”
He is currently working on his book, “Resilience, the Life History and Grand Canyon Art of Curt Walters.”
“It’s a coffee table book with a lot of flair,” he said. “This is a real story of my life, with real emotions and real people. Sometimes it’s not an easy story to tell — there were parts of my life that I wasn’t happy about and I can’t shy away from those because that made up some of my work. So nothing can be left out. It’s certainly worthy of a read.”
In the meantime, Walters is finishing up a painting that was recently sold to a couple in Texas, titled “Through Cardenas’ Eyes: First View of Grand Canyon, 1540,” acknowledging irony in the title: After all these years of painting a place that he has visited a multitude of times, he still looks at it in wonder, still with excitement, still capturing the spirit of this place that he loves, almost as if he is viewing it for the very first time.
