Visitors to Mesa Verde National Park this weekend will get a bonus if they stop by the Far View Lodge, where painter Jan Wright will be exhibiting water colors of the park she did while serving as Mesa Verde's artist-in-residence.

Ms. Wright, from Mancos, Colorado, has done more than 11 one-woman watercolor exhibits in Utah, New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado. Her paintings are in numerous private collections, as well as the Salt Lake County Fine Arts collection, Wells Fargo Bank of St. George, Utah and the College of Eastern Utah Museum in Price, Utah.

Now in its fourth successful year, Ms. Wright’s exhibit at the lounge at the Far View Lodge shows her keen observation and love of ancient cliff dwellings and rock art. Her large watercolor of Cliff Palace greets visitors at the check-in desk at the lodge.

Ms. Wright specializes in desert, archeological, and canyon landscapes of the Southwest. Often an animal, bird, or native being is hidden within the colors, textures, and reflections of a painting. Her watercolors tend to be more vibrant and intense in color and detail, different from the often looser, splashy approach to watercolor.

On Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Far View Lodge lounge (located above the Metate Room), Ms. Wright will present her paintings from her two-week Artist-in-Residence at Mesa Verde National Park. Her presentation will consist of showing the development from photos to more or less realistic watercolors to abstracted paintings using mixed media of each of several sites within the park. Each scene will be captured realistically and abstractly.

Begun during Mesa Verde National Park’s 2006 Centennial, the Artist-in-Residence program provides accomplished writers, composers, and visual and performing artists the opportunity to pursue their particular art form while being surrounded by the inspiring ancient architecture of the Ancestral Pueblo People and the sweeping natural landscape of the park. The park provides a historic, rustic residence to selected participants for 4 two-week periods each year.

For additional information about the Mesa Verde AIR program, go to the park’s Artist-In-Residence webpage, or call AIR Coordinator Frank Cope at 970-529-4607.