Julia Buckwalter

Julia was spotlighted as the 2021 Community Artist in the Parks. The majority of her painting time during that year was spent outside in one of our local parks, inspiring much of this body of work.

Julia grew up in the Southwest, traveling throughout Utah’s parks and monuments in awe of the region’s sweeping landscapes and majestic skies. As a child, she entered contests at Utah’s Springville Art Museum and learned that creating art was a vocation. After living on both coasts and studying the Visual Arts, she returned West, settling in the desert to establish her craft.

Julia paints with oil on canvas and panel, both en plein air and large-scale from photographs in the studio. She focuses on the dynamics of clouds in her skyscapes and the rich variations of color in her landscapes.

“Moab’s landscape provides endless inspiration via the intense variation of colors found in nature. I am deeply inspired and affected by Maynard Dixon, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edgar Payne, the Post-Impressionist palette and brush-work of Cezanne and Gaugain, and the cinematography of classic western films. My paintings are expressions of passion for the desert landscape's rich palette, her naturally described shapes and linear patterns, and the accompanying language of water, sky, and clouds... Combined, they awaken all of the senses.”

When she’s not painting, Julia can be found running, biking, or reading under a shady piñon tree.