Mesa Verde National Park welcomes Jan Wright from Mancos as an Artist-in-Residence. Wright has had several one-woman watercolor exhibits in Utah, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado. Her paintings are in numerous private collections as well as the Salt Lake County Fine Arts collection, Wells Fargo Bank of St. George, Utah and the CEU Museum in Price, Utah.
Now in its fourth successful year, Wrights exhibit at the lounge at the Far View Lodge shows her love of ancient cliff dwellings and rock art. Her large watercolor of Cliff Palace greets visitors at the check-in desk at the lodge.
Wright specializes in desert, archaeological and canyon landscapes of the Southwest. Often an animal, bird or native being is hidden within the colors, textures and reflections of a painting. Her watercolors tend to be more vibrant and intense in color and detail, different from the often looser, splashy approach to watercolor.
On Saturday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. at the parks Far View Lodge lounge (located above the Metate Room), Wright will present her paintings from her two-week Artist-in-Residence at Mesa Verde National Park. Her presentation will consist of showing the development from photos, to more or less realistic watercolors, to abstracted paintings using mixed media of each of several sites within the park. Each scene was captured realistically and abstractly. I expect these two weeks of intensely painting the archaeological sites within the park to stretch my abilities and ways of seeing them Wright said before beginning her residency in a written release from the park.
Begun during Mesa Verde National Parks 2006 Centennial, the Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program provides accomplished writers, composers, and visual and performing artists the opportunity to pursue their particular art form while being surrounded by the inspiring ancient architecture of the Ancestral Pueblo People and the sweeping natural landscape of the park. The park provides a historic, rustic residence to selected participants for four two-week periods each year. For additional information go to the parks Artist-In-Residence webpage at www.nps.gov/meve/supportyourpark/artists_in_residence.htm or call AIR Coordinator, Frank Cope, at 970-529-4607.