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Watercolorist paints Snowmass and then some

Jill Beathard
Snowmass Sun
Muriel Eulich, of St. Louis and Snowmass Village, stands with a watercolor painting of a cowboy at the Snowmass Rodeo on Feb. 20. A collection of Eulich's paintings is on display at the Snowmass Chapel now.
Jill Beathard/Snowmass Sun |

Armed with a camera, Muriel Eulich travels the world taking striking photographs of people she encounters.

Despite the provocative images she captures, her art does not stop there. She takes the camera home, either to St. Louis or to Snowmass Village, and she re-creates them as beautiful watercolor paintings.

Some of Eulich’s paintings are hanging in the Creekside Room in the Snowmass Chapel this winter. The display includes scenes from around the world but also many from the Snowmass and Aspen area, particularly the Snowmass Rodeo.



“To me, the cowboy is … full of drama and mystery. He arrives in the parking lot wearing a T-shirt and jeans. Suddenly with a change of clothes, he becomes a hero, a daredevil, a romantic cowboy,” Eulich said. “I have great admiration for these men that perform on horseback.”

In one of the paintings, a veiled woman stares seriously into the lens. Eulich met the young woman in India.




“She was really young,” Eulich said. “Her hands were all hennaed. … She looks terrified.”

As Eulich was photographing the woman, who she said looked like a teenager, she noticed that she had a small baby hidden from sight.

“I really like painting people and getting beneath what’s on the surface and capturing the essence of what’s inside,” Eulich said.

Eulich said she inserts herself into most of her work. Trained in art therapy, Eulich has worked in children’s and veterans’ hospitals, community centers, prisons and private practice. She also taught art therapy at the university level.

“I saw such tragic stuff, and if you can’t laugh and turn it around somehow, add some light to it, it can just really take you down,” Eulich said.

Eulich and her husband have moved around quite a bit, and though he still works in St. Louis, she says Snowmass Village is really their home now. She spends a couple of weeks a year painting at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and works in her studio here. A full-time artist, she paints five days a week, although she says she has some trouble doing that now when she’s in Snowmass.

“Now I’m most often skiing, skinning, hiking, biking with the Snowmass girls,” Eulich said. “Way too many fun distractions here.”

She also donned a sparkly top and hula skirt with them for the Mother of All Ascensions race on March 4. Eulich has even joined the Part-Time Residents Advisory Board, a committee that communicates between second-home owners and Town Hall.

“I love the community here,” she said.

Eulich’s work will be on display in the Snowmass Chapel through the end of March.

jbeathard@snowmasssun.com