
Wyatt Waters
"The Rain on Main Goes Mainly Down the Drain"
On a chilly midwinter morning, the Mississippi watercolorist Wyatt Waters hand his wife and lifelong collaborator, Kristi, were in Natchez, scrutinizing the downtown space in which they will open a gallery this spring. Waters was also waiting for the air temperature to rise into the thirties, at which point he wouldn’t have to cut his watercolor paints with vodka to keep them from freezing.
“A good story makes a good painting, and Natchez is one of those places that has a great romantic attachment. You can’t shake a tree without a story falling out.” —Wyatt Waters

Wyatt Waters
"A Porching Storm"
The Clinton-based watercolorist, who has devoted his career to capturing the South’s shifting shades in expressive works that evoke masters like Sargent and Hopper, paints exclusively out of doors and on location. “Mostly what I like is the humanity that happens when you’re working outside, with people,” Waters explained. “Painting is often a solitary thing. You’re alone. But when you’re outside, life comes at you.” Waters finds that painting outside maximizes both input and creative inspiration. “Sometimes, it’s things you can’t anticipate, like a bird commenting on your painting, or when the light comes through a cloud and gives you a shaft of light,” he observed. Other times, a story related by a passer-by provides the special sauce. “A good story makes a good painting,” Waters said, “and Natchez is one of those places that has a great romantic attachment. You can’t shake a tree without a story falling out.” During an earlier visit, Waters was Under-the-Hill painting the historic buildings along Silver Street when a bystander pointed out that workers redoing the building he was painting had once found a dead body lodged in its chimney. “They surmised that someone had been trying to rob the place and gotten stuck,” he recalled. “Once you come down and you get to know the people. You hear all these stories that don’t make the history books. And when you have a story like that, it draws you to the subject more.”

Courtesy of Wyatt Waters
Wyatt Waters painting at Longwood
Waters is prolific. During a summer trip to France during 2024, he produced eighty-one paintings in fifty-three days. This spring in Natchez, the artist intends to do the same, building a body of work depicting the city’s iconic architecture, landscapes, and its relationship with the river. Kristi noted that besides providing stock for the new gallery space, the Natchez portfolio will also form the material for a book about the city, modeled after Waters’ successful work An Oxford Sketchbook, which was published twenty-five years ago and remains one of Square Books’ best-sellers to this day. When the Wyatt Waters Gallery opens, expect an extensive selection of original paintings, plus more work available as giclée prints. Waters will also lead artists’ workshops to share the en plein air love.

Wyatt Waters
"Eola Hotel"
“The workshops started because I had many generous and good teachers,” he said. “So, it’s all about painting for me, and the good things that happen while you’re painting.”
Look for Wyatt Waters’ Gallery opening at the corner of Main and Commerce streets in downtown Natchez in early March. To learn more, sign up for workshops, and read more of the stories that emerge during Waters’ painting excursions en plein air, visit wyattwaters.com/blogs/news.