Nature's PaletteBy Lyman Hafen
Executive Director

 

 

                In all the world there is no place quite like Zion National Park. The canyon itself is one of our planet's greatest works of art. Its ancient rock statuary begets a sense of the eternal. Millions of years in the making, it is still a work in progress. The park is best known for Zion Canyon itself, a spectacular chasm between sheer walls of Navajo Sandstone towering as much as 3,000 feet above the Virgin River. The canyon's width varies from a slim slot called the "Narrows" in its upper reaches to a wider, verdant valley where the river cuts into less resistant layers of sandstone called the Kayenta and Moenave formations. Yet always, the steep multicolored walls of Navajo Sandstone, capped by temples and towers, dominate the landscape. Some have called it Yosemite in color.

 

"Secret Waters of Zion" Artist John Cogan

 Indeed, it is Zion's color that sets it apart from many of the world's majestic places. Nature has painted the canyon with a perfect combination of chemicals. The Navajo Sandstone walls we see today were laid down 175 million years ago as sand dunes in an enormous Sahara-like desert. Through the ages, those dunes hardened into what we now call Navajo Sandstone, and as the landscape lifted, a stream called the Virgin River began to carve a masterpiece.

 

Navajo Sandstone is composed of white-quartz sand grains cemented together with calcium carbonate, silica, and red iron oxide. Variations in the type and amount of these cements comprise Nature's palette in Zion Canyon. As the chemical composition varies, so do the colors of the canyon walls, from dark brown to rust and orange, to red, pink, and white. These are Nature's paints. Her brushstrokes are exposed in the random crossbedding of sands laid down anciently. And Her design presents itself in the myriad shapes of the canyon, from sheer cliffs and hanging gardens, to beehives, hoodoos, spires, and flat-topped mesas on the skyline-all the result of continuous erosion by wind, rain, and the constant flow of the Virgin River. Somehow, all the elements of the master artist have serendipitously assembled here.

              

"Within in the Park" By Gloria Allen Miller

  For more than 130 years, artists have attempted to capture the essence Zion.  Thomas Moran was among the first to translate the beauty and mystery of Zion into works of art that could be appreciated by the masses.  In recent years, the Zion National Park Foundation has worked to preserve Zion's legacy of art and to perpetuate it into the new century.

 

This year the Fourth Annual "In the Footsteps of Thomas Moran Plein Air Art Invitational in Zion National Park," will be held November 4 - 12.  It will bring together 25 of the country's finest artists to paint in the places where Thomas Moran first sketched in the canyon in 1873.  Park visitors and art enthusiasts will have the unique opportunity to see the artists at work in the park and to participate in free daily demonstrations, lectures and a fee based workshop with Master Peter Nisbit.

 

               An exhibit of artists' studio works will hang in the Zion Human History Museum from September 17 to November 9.  This year, three artists in the Masters Category will be represented in the LaFave Gallery in Springdale.  On the evening of Friday, November 9, the Zion Nature Center will be converted into an art gallery as more than 130 paintings produced during the week will be hung for a gala reception and sale to invited guests.  The wet paint sale continues to the general public on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, November 10 -12, at the Nature Center.

 

               A highlight of the event is the Saturday "Quick-Draw" held at 1:00 p.m. on the lawn in front of the Zion Lodge, beneath Zion's towers of stone.  An auction of the quick-draw paintings will follow.

 

               Proceeds from the event go to the Zion National Park Foundation to support important projects in the park, including Zion's ongoing "Art in the Park" programs.

"Eternal Zion" Artist Buffalo Kaplinski

The action of water, wind, and time has erased the actual footprints that Thomas Moran and John Wesley Powell left in Zion Canyon in 1873, but the mark they left for posterity is bigger than the Canyon itself.

 

As part of the 100th anniversary of Zion National Park, I was invited to join 20 other landscape artists and re-trace the steps Moran took in that first visit, recording our own images with paint and canvas. Using Moran's actual sketchbook as a reference, we spent one glorious week working deep in the shadows of Zion's sandstone towers. For me it was a culmination of my life's work. Having painted Zion for over 30 years, I am well acquainted with the grandeur and intimacy of the place. But this was a special time for me.

 

As each morning began, and the early rays of the sun crawled down the jagged peaks I tried to imagine how Moran must have felt, seeing it all for the first time. I've been there hundreds of times, and my heart still jumps when I see the yellow glow of sunlight warm the top of the Sentinel and Streaked Wall, breaking the ever-present chill of the morning canyon breeze.

 

Thomas Moran recorded his experiences in Zion Canyon with small pencil and watercolor studies which later developed into fabulous studio paintings, influencing generations to come. It was truly inspiring to follow in his footsteps, allowing my own emotions to take form with brush and paint as I tried to capture, using the same tools he used, the overwhelming grandeur of Zion's peaks and pinnacles.

 

Moran sketched in relative solitude, but we had hundreds of onlookers during the week, stealing quick glances and exchanging nods of approval as the artists worked. Excitement and wonder was evident in their faces as they spoke cheerily, acknowledged our artistic efforts, then hurried off with water bottles, walking sticks, and childlike eagerness in their eyes to explore Zion's secrets. We were all there for the same purpose: To fill our souls with nature's beauty and majesty.

 

Zion visitors enjoy watching artist Roland Lee at work during the 2010 Plein Air Event.

Early one morning as I set up my easel under The Sentinel with a brisk wind tugging at my sketchbook pages, I reflected on Moran's first visit. Maybe the little watercolor painting I completed that morning didn't have the finished look of the big studio painting I would complete later, just as Moran's sketches were only notes for his grand finished landscape paintings. But I knew one thing for certain-he and I had both stood on the same ground, were overwhelmed by the same vistas, and recorded our feelings with brushes and paint. My own paintings will never match his in impact or scale, but that day I felt the warm companionship of a kindred spirit as I walked in his footsteps. Maybe it was even his words that somehow echoed from the past, or maybe it was the canyon itself speaking, but I know I heard these words:

 

"See with your eyes, feel with your heart, and paint with your soul." 

To see a list of the 2012 Invited Artists click here. To see a Schedule of Events check here.

John Cogan, Joshua Been and Bill Cramer painting Zion National Park

Mark Bangerter, Oakland, CA 
Joshua Been, Salida, CO

Arlene Braithwaite, Cedar City, UT
John Cogan, Farmington, NM
Bill Cramer, Prescot, AZ
Linda Dellandre, Montgomery, TX
Cody DeLong, Cottonwood, AZ
Linda Glover Gooch, Mesa, AZ
Damien Gonzales, Albuquerque, NM
George Handrahan, Kaysville, UT
Brad Holt, Cedar City, UT
William Scott Jennings, Boulder, CO
Donal Jolley, Rimforest, CA
Becky Joy, Phoenix, AZ
Buffalo Kaplinski, Elizabeth, CO
David Koch, Richmond, UT
Mike Kowalski, Norland, WA
Roland Lee, St. George, UT
Gloria Miller Allen, Idaho Falls, ID
Peter Nisbet, Santa Fe, NM

Michael Obermeyer, Laguna Beach, CA
Dave Santillanes, Fort Collins, CO
Kate Starling, Rockville, UT
Kathleen Strukoff, Las Vegas, NV
Anne Weiler-Brown, Rockville, UT

By Barb Graves

          

            Light plays in the crevices of The Watchman as students decide the best colors to paint on their landscape renditions. A gentle November breeze reflects the fall coolness as fifty Cedar City, Utah classmates and twenty student teachers enjoy plein air painting in one of the most inspirational locations for artists and dreamers.

 

           Fifth grade students from North Elementary, and the future teachers, are visiting Zion National Park to participate in a special art invitational, In the Footsteps of Thomas Moran. Due to a generous donation from Southern Utah University, the students and teachers will spend a day at Zion trying their hands at plein air painting, listening to renowned southwestern artists, and enjoying an exhibit at the Zion Human History Museum. The experience will also include a presentation about the historical use of art to support scientific exploration, exemplified by Thomas Moran's famous paintings and illustrations that promoted early understanding of western landforms and geologic processes.

 

           For some students, this will be their first visit to Zion, and all students will have an opportunity to express their creative impressions of the landscape. Possibly, the event will help inspire a few to continue to examine our nation's spectacular National Parks with the artist's eye.       

 

For more information about the Zion National Park Youth Programs click here.