Lexi Dowdall’s Why in Watercolor
A hundred-inch storm sat draped like a blanket over Little Cottonwood Canyon, UT, in January 2021, causing an infamous “interlodge.” After 60 hours confined inside, the town of Alta was let loose to an open ski area and a closed highway. Fondly referred to as “Country Club,” it was an Alta skier’s dream. If you had the good fortune to be stuck in the canyon, near-empty slopes were yours for the taking. Lexi Dowdall was there and skied some of the deepest snow of her life. “It was a flawless day, and I wanted to preserve that blissful feeling,” she recalls. “I scooped up some snow in a Nalgene water bottle with plans to incorporate it into some of my watercolor paintings.”
With skis, boots, poles and empty milk jugs, Lexi’s ski day checklist is a little unique. Three years after that infamous Alta interlodge, she’s amidst a project to paint all 15 of Utah’s ski resorts, using snowmelt from each resort. She calls it Paint by Powder, a multi-year project to both document her love for skiing in Utah, as well as bring awareness to the threats of climate change to skiing these mountains. Scooping up snow midslope, in lift lines and behind base lodges, Lexi has gotten more than a few pull-the-goggles-up looks while on her journey turning snowflakes into art.
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