A Call to Artists

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Sunrise at Tailgate Ranch Watercolor © John Hulsey

Those of us who love to paint the landscape are always engaged in a kind of preservation effort, whether we know it at the time or not. Wild landscapes are often under threat of development or natural disasters of one kind or another. Recently, some wonderful old lodges and vast acreages of trees burned in Glacier National Park. These were places we knew from our painting residency there—places we had stayed in, hiked in and painted. Gone now.

Sometimes artists have been able to effect change directly through the art we create by painting places which we know are threatened by development or human disruption. By mounting and publicizing an exhibition of those paintings, we can bring attention to the importance of place and its impending loss. This can move hearts and minds to action to prevent this loss, as happened when Congress, influenced by paintings by artists such as George Catlin, Thomas Moran and Albert Bi…