Tony Winters is an award-winning New York based landscape artist who creates stunning oil paintings in the tradition of the Hudson River School.
The Hudson River School was an American art movement that occurred during the mid-19th century depicting the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding areas. Winters’ will bring a special collection of Arizona landscapes to the Arizona Capitol Museum at the end of October. Desert River/City River collection features visions of the magical landscape, part natural, part man-made, that makes up the Phoenix watershed.
Winters connection to the valley began visiting Arizona many years, inspired by and fascinated with its diverse desert landscape thus deciding to study and capture its beauty in oil. Since his wife is originally from Arizona they frequently vacation here in Arizona traveling and experiencing the wonders of the Sonoran desert. The drastically different landscape compared to that of the East Coast challenged and pushed Winters’ artistically, resulting in an impressive body of work that skillfully captures nature and conveys the joy experienced when in the desert.“From parched apocalypse to oasis garden city, debates over the future of America’s west get louder each year, increasingly focused on the one subject that can’t be ignored—water” says Winters.
Winters invites the viewer to marvel at the beautiful, yet fragile, Phoenix watershed, from its origins high in the Mogollon Rim to its destination in the Valley of the Sun. Winters says, “I believe people feel love and protectiveness for things they understand and find beautiful. This project intends to evoke that feeling toward the Phoenix watershed.” Desert River/City River will travel to the Arizona Capitol Museum opening to the public on Monday, October 24th through Saturday, November 26th, 2016. On Thursday November 10th there will be a special reception for the artist, which is free to the public that will hosted by the Arizona Capitol Museum’s Historian and Administrator Dr. Jack August. When asked about Winters’ work August stated, “Tony Winters’ work reveals the diversity hidden in Arizona’s landscape and climate, as well as its built environment; as a visitor to our state possessing a clear and discerning eye, he looked closer and discovered more.”
He was traditionally trained in the arts, receiving his Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from the University of the South, and was recipient of the John B. McCrady Award in the Fine Arts, as well as a Hudson River Fellowship recipient. Further studies included Master of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin, with continuing education at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, The Art Students League of New York and the New York Academy of Art. His work has also been featured in numerous publication both online and in print including PleinAir Magazine, Uptown Magazine, Paradise Valley Independent Newspaper, just to name a few. Winters has exhibited his paintings nationally, most recently debuting a new Arizona focused body of work titled “Desert River/City River” in Arizona this summer at the monOrchid in Downtown Phoenix, which then traveled to the East Valley to the Mesa Library.
Please information about the Arizona Capitol Museum and the current exhibition please visit them online at: http://www.azlibrary.gov/azcm. To learn more about talented artist Tony Winters visit him online at: http://tonywintersfineart.com. *All artwork images are courtesy and copyright of Tony Winters and gallery images by Nicole Royse.
