Evan Cantor is a long-time Colorado wilderness artist. Conservationists will recall his scratchboard drawings as regular features in Wild Earth and Wildflower magazines as well as High Country News. His images appeared in several of John Fielder’s books published by Westcliffe, as well as a number of University presses, the Rocky Mountain Land Library, Southern Rockies Wildlands Network and the Northwest Earth Institute. His painting "Trappers Lake" appeared on the cover of ReWilding Earth's Best of 2018 book. He was the guest artist at pARTiculars Gallery in Lafayette, Colorado in January 2019. Exhibitions have included the Arts & Letters Club of Toronto, various juried shows, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and “The Lure of The Local”, curated by Lucy Lippard. He is a member of the Temagami 22, an international collection of invited North-American artists concerned with environmental preservation, and was the Rocky Mountain Land Library’s 2005 artist-in-residence. In 2006 he was honored with an award from the Southern Rockies Conservation Alliance for his “outstanding contribution” of both art and music to the wilderness preservation effort in Colorado. Evan took up oil painting at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, in October 2016, with plein-air alla prima instruction from Taos artist Michelle Chrisman. His art has always been a celebration of the beauty of the natural world and with this ‘new’ medium, he continues to seek unique perspectives in nature. Merging the spiritual values of the transcendentalists with a psychedelic aesthetic, he brings a personal interpretation to the natural world. At the core of our world’s existential beauty is the fact that Nature, the ultimate artist, exists not because of us nor for us, but simply because it is. Evan has accepted the challenge of art as an effort to tap into a stream of cosmic consciousness. That his work may touch others in the process is a surreal mystery that he has always cherished.
