Dorothy Newkirk Stewart:Santa Fe Artist and Printmaker

In May 2026, I will be driving cross-country from Winston Salem, North Carolina to Canyon Road in Santa Fe. Initially, I had planned to fly and ship the collection of Dorothy Stewart’s wood block prints for an exhibition at the Historic Santa Fe Foundation. But due to the expense of shipping framed artwork,that has now changed. We are taking a road trip. Thelma and Louise, here we come!!

This adventure marks the 100th anniversary of the Stewart sisters’ arrival on Canyon Road. After their first visit in 1921, it took several years to find a suitable home for the two of them, but finally a small 18th century casita, 519 Canyon Road, became available.

After an extensive renovation by the well-respected architect and restorer of early Spanish Territorial adobe buildings, Katherine Mueller Chapman,they had a home. Almost to the day of their centennial,the Historic Santa Fe Foundation will host an exhibition featuring thirty-three of Dorothy’s earliest representations of the region. Many of these block prints are facsimiles of the very pieces that debuted at the “New Museum” in 1928.

That museum,now known as the New Mexico Museum of Art,was founded in 1917 by archeologist and anthropologist Edgar L. Hewett. As one of the first cultural preservationists in Santa Fe, Hewett helped establish the museum on the central Plaza, where it became a magnet for celebrated artists such as John Sloan, Robert Henri,and Gustave Baumann.They came were seeking new landscapes and found them in the high desert’s exquisite light, pristine climate, and rich cultural diversity.

As part of the exhibtion opening on May 29th, I will present a slideshow exploring Dorothy’s artwork,her extensive travels,and her intimate friendship with Maria Chabot.This history feels like the definitive answer to the question I first asked myself in 2015: who were these ancestors of mine?