Absorbing the techniques prevalent in scientific field studies, explorer’s notebooks, and lushly illustrated natural history books, Walton Ford’s watercolors recast, reverse, and rearrange the conventions of wildlife art.
Ford’s practice is research-driven, responding to everything from Hollywood horror movies, Indian fables, medieval bestiaries, colonial hunting narratives, and obscure zookeeper’s manuals.
By shifting the point of view back and forth from human to animal; from informational to narrative; from scientific distance to passionate emotion; and from minutiae to monumental, Ford transforms his research materials into something akin to hallucinations.
Ford’s visions are consistently of wild rather than domestic animals. His paintings seek to show us what it means for such animals to live not so much in nature as in the human imagination.
Ford grew up in the Hudson Valley and is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. He currently lives and works in New York City.
