Various locations, Sedona, AZ Through November 30
Curt Walters well merits his widely declared distinction as the unparalleled living painter of America’s greatest natural wonder, the Grand Canyon. In 1969, still in his teens, he took the first steps toward that goal, and he continues the arduous yet pleasurable work to this day. Along the way, Walters has earned many top awards at such events as the Prix de West at Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum; Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis; and Masters of the American West, the former event at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles.
It is fitting that a major career retrospective should take place in Sedona, Arizona, the town Walters has not only called home for 47 years but that also puts him within a two-and-a-half-hour drive of his favored subject. Titled A Lifetime in Art, the exhibition, hosted by Fine Art Museum of Sedona, brings together 48 artworks spanning 1979 to the present. The Canyon features prominently among them, and these and other works appear primarily at the Mary D. Fisher Fine Art Complex. Two miles west, in a museum pop-up behind the Sedona Heritage Museum, paintings depicting the town’s surrounding landscape from Walters’ earlier days there are displayed as Impressions of Sedona 1980-2000.
Opening receptions took place at the Mary D. Fisher on September 4 and at the pop-up on September 18. Both venues also feature special screenings of Painting the Air (next happening October 2 at the museum), a documentary on the artist made by his filmmaker daughter Miranda Foreman; as well as the illustrated new biography Resilience: The Life History and Grand Canyon Art of Curt Walters, written by his grandson Damien Foreman.
Among the mostly large-scale Grand Canyon paintings at the Mary D. Fisher is the recent INSTANT OPUS, depicting an epic sunset lightning storm that Walters witnessed from Yavapai Point. “I was right there, with big bolts of lightning everywhere,” he says. A different take on the subject, part of a new series, can be savored in a painting of the Spaniard who led the first European party to discover the canyon, García López de Cárdenas, shown in full military attire at the South Rim in 1540. Walters notes, “The first time I visited the Canyon, at the age of 19, I saw an incredible diorama there of the conquistadors, and it just stuck in my head all these years. Now, I’ve collected all the costumes and saddles and bridles, and I have models coming to pose. I’m determined to do it. It’s a blast!”
A more poignant but nonetheless stirring story is told in Walters’ landscape paintings at the Heritage Museum, typified by the plein air work VICISSITUDE, which depicts yuccas in glorious springtime bloom backed by Sedona’s famed red rock cliffs. As the title suggests, however, all did not bode well for the idyllic scene. “That place doesn’t exist anymore,” he ruefully says. “It’s now a shopping center and parking lot.” In that regard, so many of the paintings in Walters’ landmark two-venue show deliver a subtle yet strong message to appreciate and preserve the nation’s natural splendors. —Norman Kolpas
contact information(888) 602-2667fineartmuseumofsedona.org
This story appeared in the October/November 2026 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.
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