One of the country’s most acclaimed plein air painters will be honored during a major retrospective hosted by the Fine Art Museum of Sedona this fall. Curt Walters: A Lifetime of Artwill showcase more than five decades of Walters’ career, featuring iconic Southwest landforms, plein air paintings of locales around the world and works from a previously unreleased private collection. The exhibition also gives viewers an intimate look at the artist’s masterful approach to color and light, as well as his devoted commitment to environmental advocacy.
Instant Opus, oil, 48 x 48 in.
“I understand that most collectors only see the most current works of an artist and form their opinions based on a short period of an artist’s career. A retrospective spans years and shines a light on periods of an artist’s emotions, and of that ‘place in time’ they were created,” says Walters. This retrospective with the Fine Arts Museum of Sedona lends a near comprehensive look at all the painting styles and periods of Walters’ life and art. “I know from my past retrospectives that unexpected emotions came rushing at me,” the artist says.
Osiris Revealed, oil, 40 x 30 in.
The exhibition is spread across two locations. The first venue, the Sedona Heritage Museum, will focus on Walters’ early career works and his connection to the Southwest. “As a child from rural New Mexico, travel and painting foreign lands was part of my dreams, and thankfully they came true. I have brought home knowledge which helped me see and interpret my home and many locations within our United States. All of these experiences behind me, I realize now just how comfortable I am in the landscape of the Southwest,” Walters reflects. “I am always excited by the dramatic warm-colored topography and large reflective skies. I am somehow emotionally centered when I am surrounded by a juniper forest and have always made my home in that kind of landscape.”
George Jordan’s Packing Shed, 1994, oil, 30 x 30 in.
The second venue, Mary D. Fisher Fine Art Complex, showcases the artist’s expansive international travels across Europe and Asia, including plein air studies, large-scale studio canvases, technical sketches and works reflecting his active role in environmental conservation.
“It was only by writing my book Resilience: Life and Grand Canyon Art of Curt Walters, that I was forced to look deep into my past and needed to explain the emotions I felt in every brushstroke. It took a very long time, but I now respect and admire every one of my paintings, which I believe is the same way history will look upon the entire body of my work. I believe I have created a legacy of Grand Canyon art that is unequaled for the variety, emotional content and intrinsic meaning of this grand subject,” says Walters.
Winter at Yaki Point, 2000, oil, 30 x 24 in.
Curt Walters: A Lifetime of Art will hang at the Mary D. Fisher Fine Art Complex through October 28 and at the Sedona Heritage Museum through November 30. —
Curt Walters: A Lifetime of Art
Fine Art Museum of Sedona
Through October 28, 2026
Mary D. Fisher Complex
2030 W. State Route 89A Sedona, AZ 86336
Through November 30, 2026
Sedona Heritage Museum
735 Jordan Road, Sedona, AZ 86336
www.fineartmuseumofsedona.org
Powered by Froala Editor
