Douglas Atwill, a celebrated Santa Fe painter who continued creating art well into his 90s, died on October 8 at age 92 due to complications from cancer, heart problems, and impending blindness caused by macular degeneration. Known for his confident brushwork and philosophy that art should be enjoyable rather than perfect, Atwill painted almost daily until shortly before his death.
Troy Buchleiter, director at New Concept Gallery on Canyon Road where Atwill exhibited his recent works, remembered the artist's remarkable speed and confidence. "It seemed like he never hesitated," Buchleiter said. "He was very comfortable just with what he put down on the canvas. He didn't keep going back and rethinking it." While most artists might take months to complete a large canvas, Atwill typically finished a 4-foot-by-3-foot painting in just a week to 10 days.
When Buchleiter once asked about his rapid painting style, Atwill responded with characteristic simplicity: "Oh, I learned a long time ago not to worry about making it perfect. It's more important to just have fun painting." This philosophy guided Atwill throughout his artistic career, which spanned several decades in Santa Fe.
Born in Pasadena, California, in 1933, Atwill displayed artistic talent from an early age. His brother Jim Atwill of Port Aransas, Texas, recalled discovering childhood drawings their mother had saved. "There's still some stick figures, but they had composition to them, even back then," he said with a laugh. After high school, Douglas was drafted into the Army, where an aptitude test revealed exceptional intelligence. He declined officer candidate school to avoid extended active duty and instead served in the Army's counterintelligence corps, stationed in Stuttgart, Germany, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Following his military service, Atwill remained in Europe briefly, attending the University of Perugia in Italy before returning to the United States. He studied fine art at the University of Texas in Austin and later worked at an advertising firm there. His first visit to Santa Fe came in the late 1950s when he and friends attended the opera. "I just looked in the restaurants and the people and listened to the conversations, and I thought, 'This is a good place to live,'" Atwill said in "A Creative Life," a documentary about him directed by Paul Shapiro. "It's a small town but the people are liberal and open and accepting."
In 1969, Atwill moved to Santa Fe with his partner, Victor Pete Stewart, where he began building his reputation as a painter specializing in Southwestern landscapes and garden scenes. However, tragedy struck early when Stewart was diagnosed with aggressive cancer and died in 1975. Atwill briefly considered leaving New Mexico after his partner's death but ultimately decided to stay. "I realized that I really loved it here," he said in the documentary. He later found love again with his second partner, Robert Zygmand, who died in 2003.
Beyond painting, Atwill applied his artistic vision to architectural design, partnering with the late Billy Halstead to create custom homes. Wayne Bladh, a Santa Fe resident and retired attorney who remained close to Atwill until his death, described their seamless collaboration. "Often when they were planning a new house, they would go to lunch," Bladh recalled. "Douglas would just get out his pen and sort of sketch a house on a napkin, and he would say, 'Billy, draw this up.'"
In the early days, Halstead worked on graph paper, but later mastered computer-assisted design programs to bring Atwill's visions to life. Despite neither man being a licensed architect, their detailed drawings typically constituted about 90 percent of what was needed for building permit approval, according to Bladh. "They just fit together," he said. Atwill spent his final years living in the 60th house he had designed in Santa Fe.
Atwill was also a prolific writer, creating poetry, short stories, and novels. He was known as a voracious reader and enthusiastic traveler who made annual trips to Barbados, renting villas for weeks at a time and inviting friends to join him. "He loved putting together people in that way," Bladh said. "He was a great conversationalist and he got so much energy out of interacting with people who he thought had interesting ideas."
As Atwill aged, his physical strength and mobility began to decline before his eyesight started to fade. "As long as he was able to paint, he saw life as worth living," Bladh observed. "Because he was such a visual person, and the act of painting was so central to his self-identity. He could not live if he couldn't paint." Toward the end of his life, Atwill painted numerous images of clouds, maintaining his joy in creation even as his abilities diminished.
Buchleiter recalled his final visit to Atwill's studio, where the artist showed him his latest cloud paintings. "The last time I was over at the studio and I saw him, he said, 'You know, I don't know if many people are going to love these,'" Buchleiter remembered. "'But I'm still having fun doing them.'" This sentiment perfectly captured Atwill's lifelong approach to art – prioritizing personal fulfillment and joy over commercial success or critical acclaim, a philosophy that sustained him through nine decades of creative expression.
