YOUR AD HERE »

Museum of Northwest Colorado estimates world’s largest water color to be complete December 4

Progress of Israel Holloway's water color painting, as seen from high above inside the Museum of Northwest Colorado. The painting, once completed, will be the world’s largest fine art watercolor.
Max O’Neill / Craig Press

As the calendar moves closer to December, local artist Israel Holloway is nearing the finish line of world’s largest fine art watercolor. The painting is expected to be finished in the first few weeks of December, with an estimated date of December 4, according to the museum’s assistant director Paul Knowles.

Holloway took the week of Thanksgiving off, but will return to finish the paint next week.

The idea for the mural came about as a result of some financial troubles that the museum was having and a want to help revitalize the downtown area.



“We wanted to set a different narrative, we wanted a positive story, something that wasn’t just a feel good in the community but something that got the word out about Craig in general, nationwide,” Knowles said.

According to Knowles this will be the biggest water color painting in the world, beating the record set by Barbara Ernest Prey’s water color painting, Building 6 Portrait: Interior. Prey’s is 40 square feet smaller than the Museum’s watercolor, which sits at 16 feet by 10 feet.



In an effort to show the progress of Holloway, the Museum of Northwest Colorado has live-streamed Holloway’s painting sessions on Facebook. The live stream’s record viewership number is 2.5K views.

Knowles says that it is exactly what they were hoping for and that they have received a lot of positive feedback on the live streams.

“We’ve had a lot of people say this is brightening their day because they are stuck at home due to COVID and this is a way to watch the progress while it’s going on,” Knowles said.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Craig and Moffat County make the Craig Press’ work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.