Josè Toledo

Joe Toledo knows how rainwater flows on paper. When he applies color to wet paper, form begins and the flow becomes transparent. Toledo mixes rainwater with color (he never uses black or white) and the paper becomes vibrant, yet peaceful. Toledo has chosen watercolor “because it is spontaneous and unpredictable.” So too, the artist and the man.

His art is a reflection of the ritual of his Pueblo culture (the quiet power of the eagle feather) and pastoral realism (the passing harmony of a weathered barn of equally weathered land). There is no struggle of study in his work — the images of his eye become thoughts on paper placed there with extraordinary and sensitive ease, which is unique to his brush. Toledo received his Bachelor’s degree from Southwestern College in Kansas and his Master’s from the University of Northern Colorado.