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GALLERY NEWS

Jun 13, 2025
Sean Wallis Interview

Sean Wallis is a painter based in Salt Lake City, Utah. As an impressionist, Wallis pays close attention to the relationship of light and color, capturing fleeting moments with the texture of oil paint, loose brushwork and colorful palette. His work with light, hue, and atmosphere manifest through a skillful combination of colors that vibrates and excites the eye, resulting in an uncanny illusion of depth and movement.

Sean Wallis - Last Light on the Reservoir
Sean Wallis, “Last Light on the Reservoir,” Oil on Canvas, 24 x 36 in

Many of your landscapes feature the landscapes of Utah and the West—what role does water play in how you interpret and represent these vast spaces?

Water has captured the imagination since the beginning of time. Living in a high desert, people are drawn to water. There is a serenity to it that can really speak to your soul, as well as an excitement that can energize you, just ask anyone who has yelled “cannon ball!” Water becomes a meeting place. Often landscapes are just what we cross to get to water. These areas are teaming with life and often help to cultivate the beauty I want to portray in my most romantic vision of the west. 

Sean Wallis - Morning in the wetlands
Sean Wallis, “Morning in the wetlands,” Oil on Canvas, 11 x 14 in

How do you capture the energy and texture of a fast-flowing river without losing a sense of realism or cohesion?

For me it is about letting your hand be as free as the water you are trying to imitate. Texture provides a way to say a lot with a few brush strokes. For me that is freeing. In an academic sense, however, you have to nail the value. If your values are correct, you can be wild and free with the flowing of the brush strokes, and it will still retain that sense of realism and cohesion. 

Is it more technically demanding to depict the turbulence of a river or the perfect calm of a pond?

Turbulence is more technically demanding for me. A reflective, still water is about brushstrokes and moving the paint to create a sense of calm and reflection. To paint a rushing river, you have so much subtlety in every inch, that it takes more time and effort to recreate.  

Sean Wallis - Evening Waters
Sean Wallis, “Evening Waters,” Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in

Is there a personal or emotional connection you feel with water in the landscapes you paint?

For me water is life. It’s engrained in each of us, this desire, beyond thirst, to be near it. Lay by a stream and feel your entire nervous system calm. Lay by a stream and feel your entire nervous system calm –that is why people are drawn to paintings of water – they want to bring that feeling indoors. I remember hiking through the Tetons and being surprised by a glacial lake; the beauty and serenity I felt when I saw it made me abandon my hike, and I fell asleep with my feet in the water. Luckily some other hikers woke me in time to return to camp before dark.

Do you work from plein air sketches, photographs, memory—or a combination—when painting water scenes?

I work from a combination of references. I love painting plein air above all, a practice I developed with my father, impressionist painter Kent Wallis over five years of Sundays, but some paintings are too big to do outside, so I will utilize a photograph. I also will paint from my mind at times. I have photos taken when water was low, but added water where I know it would be on wet years.

Sean Wallis - Tucked Away
Sean Wallis, “Tucked Away,” Oil on Canvas, 24 x 30 in

How do you want viewers to feel when standing in front of one of your water landscapes—invited, calmed, energized?

The feeling I try to evoke is that calm serenity, almost a nostalgia. Think of your favorite memories, I bet more than a few are near water. Even when I paint rushing rivers, I want my viewers to almost hear the water as they see my work. 

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Posted in
  • Artist Interviews
  • Artists
  • Diving Deeper
  • Sean Wallis
Tags
  • Ann Korologos
  • Contemporary Western Art
  • Landscapes
  • plein air
  • Sean Wallis
  • Southwest Art