Rivers and Lakes

by

Walter Taylor

Exhibit at Shambhala Meditation Center, Boulder, Colorado, November-December, 2009.

This website catalogs the exhibit, with photos of the paintings and replicas of the artist's statement and the captions. Click on a small photo to see a larger version. These low-res photos are copyright 2009 Walter Taylor, as are any other photographs and the paintings themselves. Permission granted for personal viewing.

I am an open-air painter, mostly of land- and water-scapes in watercolor. When feasible, I like to revisit a spot often, over days or through the seasons, and to paint on site, thereby coming to a better knowledge of place. (Due to weather, local conditions, and time constraints, I also paint at home from painted drafts or photographs.)

I have made painting excursions to lakes and oceans in several states, and especially the wonderful cliffs, canyons, lakes, rivers and streams of Colorado and New Mexico, which are celebrated in this exhibit. I especially thank Rose Sposito and Suter Du Bose for accommodating and encouraging my many visits to their land along the Little Thompson River.

I take a hat, folding table and chair, a board, and a backpack with the essentials. Sometimes I just sit and absorb the scene for some time before beginning to paint. Sometimes there is wind, sometimes not. Sometimes there is a finished product, sometimes not.

Little Thompson River, Larimer County, Colorado. Photographed in April, 2009.

Little Thompson River, Larimer County, Colorado. Photographed in October, 2007. I wish I could identify the geologic formations along here.

A rapid on the Arkansas River, Buena Vista, Colorado, June, 2009. Mostly plein-air. This scene is one of many that I have done in the River Park in downtown BV. I have studied the Arkansas here since 2004.

Cottonwood Creek, a few miles upstream from Buena Vista, Colorado. Photographed in June, 2008. Collegiate Peaks in background. Looking upstream from a beaver dam; the resulting slow and shallow river has deposited a bed of light sand.

Red Rock Lake, Boulder County, August 2007. Plein-air, detail added later. I have been studying this lake, and its red rock(s), since 2003.

Red Rock Lake, Boulder County. Photographed close-up in August, 2009, and then painted at home in September.

Red Rock Lake, Boulder County, August, 2008. Painted at home from sketches made on site. Same lake as in the other two views, but from a different location on shore. Indian Peaks in the background. Winds calm, but rain soon came.

Switzerland Trail, near Gold Hill, Boulder County, September, 2007. Studio painting, after several plein-air drafts. I first painted this aspen grove in 2005.

Switzerland Trail, near Gold Hill, Boulder County. The same aspens, photographed close-up in September, 2009.

Río Chama, near Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, May, 2008. Mostly plein-air. Sixty miles upstream from Abiquiú, and just downstream from El Vado Dam. I have studied the Chama and its cliffs since 2003.