There are artists whose work feels inseparable from the land itself, as if the landscapes they paint quietly guide their hand. Jan Wright is one of those artists. A watercolorist based in Mancos, Jan has spent more than five decades listening closely to the Southwest—its mesas, canyons, open skies, and timeless landscape—and translating that connection onto paper with patience and grace.
Over her 52-year career, Jan has exhibited in more than 30 galleries and shops and held over 40 solo shows across Utah, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Her paintings, mainly Southwest landscapes, are not exact depictions but impressions shaped by memory, light, and emotion. Watercolor, with its fluidity and unpredictability, is her preferred medium—one that reflects the natural world’s constant movement and subtle changes.
For years, Jan was a familiar face in the Artisans of Mancos community, and she now displays her work at Raven House Gallery in Mancos. However, her artistic journey has always gone beyond gallery walls. In 2015, she published Hands of the Ancients Medicine Cards, a project that reflected her interest in symbolism, reflection, and personal insight. As those cards began to sell out, a new idea emerged—one that would lead Jan to revisit her entire body of work.
That idea evolved into Inspirations from Earth & Sky, an uplifting divination deck created entirely from Jan’s landscape watercolors. The project prompted her to revisit paintings spanning decades and notice which images still held a quiet resonance. From that process, 29 paintings emerged, each paired with words conveying themes of hope, peace, and care—for oneself, others, and the natural world.
Jan describes the experience as both reflective and healing. The act of selecting and pairing images becomes a way of tracing her own artistic and personal path, recognizing patterns of curiosity and reverence that have stayed constant throughout her life. The cards are not prescriptive or fixed in meaning; instead, they provide space. Many people, Jan included, draw a card in the morning to set the tone for the day or turn to the deck when facing a difficult question, trusting that the image and words will meet them where they are.
Printed in mid-December, Inspirations from Earth & Sky is now available locally at Raven House Gallery in Mancos, Odd Cat Books in Dolores, and the Cortez Cultural Center. Like Jan’s paintings themselves, the cards invite a pause—a moment to look inward, outward, and skyward. They reflect a lifetime of attentive seeing and a deep affection for the land that continues to shape her work, reminding us that art can serve as both a record of place and a companion for reflection.
For more information visit Jan at www.janwrightwatercolors.com.
