Stories that blaze their own trails.
The art and writing of Katy L. Wood.
Wildfire Watercolors
After the East Troublesome Fire tore through her home county in the late summer of 2020, Katy wanted to do something to help support the local fire departments. In the end, she settled on creating a series of illustrations to help raise money via the sale of prints. She gathered charcoal from the fire and, with the addition of local honey and several other ingredients, used it to make watercolor paint that she then used to create a series of five illustrations. Each illustration features an animal and landscape from Grand County.
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To date, the watercolors have raised roughly $5,000 for Grand County Fire Departments. She also used the paint to create a mural in the same style for the Granby Mural Festival in 2021.
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Prints of these artworks can be found in her shop.
The first illustration in the series features an elk and a view of Elk Mountain. The southern flank of the fire crested over this mountain before eventually making it's 20 mile run to the east.
The second in the series features a moose and a view of Byers Canyon from Highway 40.
The third in the series features a deer and the Kremmling cliffs.
The fourth in the series features a bobcat and Grand Lake. The town of Grand Lake suffered the worst losses in the fire and, for a time, it was worried that the whole town had been lost.
The fifth and final illustration in the series features a black bear and a view of Gore Canyon from Kremmling.