Taos Summer Writers Conference Home

The Artists


The Taos Summer Writers' Conference is proud and honored to feature a local artist every year. In past years Ed Samuels, Sylvia Ernestina Vergara, Ed Sandoval, Carson Bennett, Jennifer Cavan, Ann Huston, Peggy McGivern, and Tom Darrah have generously contributed works which have been used for our featured winter postcards and poster images.



Ouida Touchón is the 2013 Featured Artist.

Ouida Touchón is a visual artist who spends most of her waking moments at the easel or the press. She has her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in Painting, and her Masters of Art from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in studio arts. In addition she has studied with mentors and distinguished printmakers and painters in Italy, Mexico, and the United States.
In 2003 she moved to Las Cruces, in southern New Mexico and opened Cruz Nopal Art Studio where she produces unique paintings and handprints in a variety of styles. Her work is in the collections of the El Paso Museum of Art and the Historical Museum for the State of New Mexico as well as the Federal building of Las Cruces, New Mexico. She is represented by various galleries throughout the United States.

  • Ouida Touchón - Mardi Gras Madness
  • Ouida Touchón - Don't Fence Me In
  • Ouida Touchón - Magpies Flight I
  • Ouida Touchón - Long Otter's Shirt
  • Ouida Touchón - Spheres of Influence
  • Ouida Touchón - Spheres of Influence


Images: Mardi Gras Madness, Don't Fence Me In, Magpie's flight I, Long Otter's Shirt, Spheres of Influence, Four Pomgranates II.

"I am an image maker, more than a painter, or a printmaker.
My interest is to use the offerings of the medium: the grain, the brush, the viscous paint, the torn edge of the paper, all of these elements affect the surface in such a way as to open the door in, into the feeling of the image. Each expressed image is linked to the observed, relying on my eyes to unlock the mind and investigate the possibilities of manifesting the image. Sometimes the scintillation of it is where it ends but sometimes the motif itself causes a hoped for a sensation of lingering joy, or commonality. We may all speak different languages but the resonance of an image can be multi-lingual. This is what I hope for in each of my images."

Visit Ouida Touchón's website here.