The Texas Book Festival today announced that Austin-based painter Valerie Fowler is the festival 2018 poster artist.
Fowler’s oil painting “Spring, Everything Changes” is a luscious, surrealistic interpretation of Fredericksburg peach trees in bloom and evokes a sense of storybook wonder and the unique possibility of the Texas landscape.
Fowler’s career spans more than 30 years and includes a wide variety of works, from oil on canvas to commissioned murals, that explore the wildly diverse natural world of Texas.
“I hope my paintings bring recurring pleasure,” Fowler says. “Having a work of art you come back to is much like reading a favorite novel—every time you return to it, it takes you back to moments from earlier in your life: who you were before, who you’ve been since, and also gives you something new. When a painting keeps giving each time you come back to it, that’s part of what really makes it a successful painting.”
The tradition of choosing a representative work by a Texas artist began in 1998, and the honor has been shared by acclaimed artists and photographers such as Lance Letscher, Julie Speed, Dan Winters, Kate Breakey, and Jack Unruh.
“The Texas Book Festival is thrilled to feature Valerie Fowler’s work this year,” says Lois Kim, executive director of Texas Book Festival. “Her beautifully alive paintings convey the fantasy in our imaginations and the energy of what lies just beneath the surface. They perfectly capture the creative spirit of our Festival.”
The 2018 Texas Book Festival happens Oct 27 and 28, texasbookfestival.org
