Widforss: Artist in the National Parks Lecture

Crater Lake, by Gunnar Widforss

I'm writing today to invite you to a lecture on Gunnar Widforss that Alan Petersen, curator at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff,  is giving at the Swedish Club  in Seattle on Wednesday, July 12.  There's a dinner and potluck at 6:30, and if you wish to just attend the lecture, that starts at 7:30 or shortly afterwards.  Alan is at work on a book about Widforss,  a notable watercolor artist who lived at Grand Canyon National Park, but also painted in many other parks, at the behest of Stephen Mather, first director of the National Park Service.  Widforss traveled widely, and he's also well-known for the work he did in the years he lived at Yosemite. You can see his watercolors hanging in the Ahwahnee Hotel in the Valley. I've heard Alan lecture on Widforss at a workshop I taught at Yellowstone, and it was fascinating with a slide show full of Widforss's beautiful work, and photos of his home town in Sweden, where Alan traveled to research Widforss's life.  Alan helped me with my research for my upcoming book Colors of the West, as I wrote about many important artists of the national parks.