Stuart Walker did one known watercolor of this landmark. It would have been quite a journey from Albuquerque in the mid-1930s and Walker was sick his entire adult life with rheumatic fever which he contracted as a teenager during service in WWI.
I love the way the clouds and mountains and church all come together. He masterfully captures each form distinctly, yet they feel like they are all part of one whole. Each is a part of the other. There is just enough depicted for the viewer to understand the story.
When I look at this piece my eye travels across the building to the mountains and into the clouds. Then I see the cross and I know where I am and it brings me back. I think Walker's skillful movement between what we see – and the feeling that creates - and what we know
is what makes this work so compelling.
