Wilson Hurley
Wilson Hurley passed away this year. I didn’t know Wilson very well, but I was able to visit his studio twice where he was kind enough to critique my work and spend time talking about painting and things that influenced him. Wilson had a varied and full life, he attended West Point, became a pilot and served in Vietnam. He attended law school and practiced in New Mexico. During all this time he painted when he could. He eventually started painting fulltime and used all his experiences in life to teach himself to paint and was encouraged by Robert Lougheed, also an artist in New Mexico.
Wilson’s work can be found in many museums including the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and the Albuquerque Museum of Art. The pieces that have had the most effect on me are the four very large murals located in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. They are monumental respresentations of light and color in landscape painting. If you haven’t had a chance to see a good body of work by Wilson Hurley, you might want to check out this book “ Wilson Hurley: A Retrospective Exhibition