Angelo State Gallery to Feature Former Art Educator

Angelo State University will present an exhibit of abstract, complex watercolor paintings by retired Midland College art professor Warren Taylor beginning Wednesday, Aug. 19, in the Carr Education-Fine Arts (EFA) Building, 2602 Dena Drive.

The exhibit, titled “Now and Then,” will be housed in the EFA Building’s Gallery 193 and will be open for free public viewing from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays through Friday, Sept. 25.

“Many of my works have direct references to historical passages and great paintings of the past, couched in an abstract setting,” Taylor said. “The intention is for the viewer to examine the work that is on the top and that which goes so deep as to be barely visible. To me, that reflects our response to time, to the past and to present realities.”

A member of the National Watercolor Society, American Watercolor Society and Watercolor USA Honor Society, Taylor has had works displayed in over 250 exhibitions of American watercolor painting, including in such places as Nanjing, China, the Tokyo National Art Center and St. James Palace in London. He also has juried the Rocky Mountain Aqueous National and exhibitions in Phoenix, Denver, Richmond, Va., and Dallas. His works have been purchased for many university, museum and corporate collections.

The Kansas native joined the studio faculty of Midland College in 1979. Prior to that, he graduated from Bethany College in Kansas, served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Germany, taught in Kansas public schools for seven years and earned both a Master of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from Fort Hays State University.

In 1999, Taylor was named a Piper Distinguished Professor, an award granted yearly to 10 outstanding Texas professors by the Piper Foundation of San Antonio. In 1992, he was the top award winner of the Arches Paper competition, an event to mark the 500th anniversary of the famed paper company. And in 2000, he was the only American watercolor painter selected to represent the U.S. in the millennium competition sponsored by Winsor-Newton Company.

Taylor retired in 2011 from Midland College and has relocated to San Angelo. More information on his art and career is available at his website, http://warrentaylor-artist.com.