Collector’s Focus: Painting the National Parks
Self-styled “Captain” John Hance (1840-1919)—he was only a private in the Confederate Army—built trails and spun tales at the Grand Canyon from the time he arrived there as a prospector in 1883. He first improved an old Havasupai trail which became known as the Old Hance Trail. Barely passable when first used, by the mid1890s it had become completely impassable because of rockslides and washouts.
The paintings of the Yellowstone area by Thomas Moran (1837–1926) were influential in the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1972—the country’s, and possibly the world’s, first national park. Moran knew Hance and painted a watercolor, The Grand Canyon: Head of the Old Hance Trail, circa 1892, from near Hance’s cabin on the South Rim.
His paintings, both watercolors and oils, are often spectacularly colorful. In this painting, using only black and white watercolor, ink, gouache and a graphite underdrawing, he captures a feeling of depth and atmospheric distance. The rocks in the foreground, white gouache, allow two figures to stand out. The rocks in the middle distance are dark and silhouetted against the distance which is layered in thin washes.
Merrill Mahaffey’s acrylic Bright Angel Morning View emphasizes the depth of the Grand Canyon from the bottom with only a small triangle of blue sky to break the illusion that the walls rise forever. Mahaffey often includes water in his paintings. Here, it is a subtle blue base to the rocks, reflecting the nearly unseen sky. The water’s calmness belies the role it had in forming the canyon and leaching out and revealing the colors of the rocks. Mahaffey has referred to himself as a “spiritual naturalist” caring for the land and painting its subtleties.
The isolated Cunningham Cabin in Grand Teton National Park, built in 1888, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Cunningham (1865-1934) was one of the first homesteaders in the region. James Mcgrew painted a view of the majestic mountains from the rustic log cabin, contrasting the ephemeral building with the seemingly eternal mountains. He says, “I use my art as a vehicle to communicate to a wider audience than I can via an interpretive naturalist program. My goal is to inspire others to appreciate natural beauty to hopefully generate a sense of stewardship.” He follows in the footsteps of Cunningham who recognized the potential of the land for recreation after drought and falling beef prices nearly wiped him out after World War I. Despite controversial land deals, the lands eventually became part of the national park. If the cabin hadn’t been restored in 1956, it would have returned to the soil as the other homestead cabins and barns already had.
Linda Tippetts is a hiker. Her painting, Iceberg Lake, was featured in the exhibition, A Timeless Legacy - Women Artists of Glacier National Park at the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana. Brought up
“When a painting draws a little gasp, when your eye wishes to travel a trail, when your heart says ‘I want to be there,’ you can be confident that painting will bring years of pleasure in your home.” – Dawn Sutherland, artist
working with her father on their family’s Montana Ranch, she developed an affinity for nature and being outdoors. Among her many tales are being pelted by pebbles thrown by tourists at an overlook to warn her of the grizzly watching her paint, and having slept in her car only to wake up in the morning with the windows covered with ash from the eruption of Mount St. Helens.
The Hockaday recounts her explanation of her process, which involves “driving around, hiking around and constantly looking for that ‘a-ha’ moment that says I want to paint this.” One of her “a-ha” moments occurred at Iceberg Lake in Glacier National Park. “The inspiration, after a healthy hike, became the incredible light. I minimized most elements that could be minimized and concentrated on the light. The icebergs were plentiful—you never know until you see it ‘in the moment.’”
Wolf Kahn’s “moment” is a more than a single “a-ha.” He says, “People mistakenly think that art is about nature or about an artist’s feelings about nature. It is instead a path of enlightenment and pleasure, one of many paths, where nature and the artist’s feelings are merely raw material.” A consummate colorist, Kahn causes the viewer to experience nature in a different way—to stop and to look again, to experience the painting and, ultimately, to experience life more fully.
Kahn was invited by the National Park Service to paint in Yellowstone. His oil Yellowstone Silhouette in complementary greens and oranges captures a vibrant moment.
In the pages of this special section, collectors will find works depicting the beauty of the National Parks from some of the most prominent Western artists, galleries and museums.
There is something inherently soothing about the soft pastel landscapes of painter Enid Wood. “Sharing the restorative power of nature through visiting national parks has been a source of wonder and inspiration for as long as I can remember. I treasure having the chance to share this joy with others through my pastel paintings,” she says. Wood created Dunes After Downpour after a solo trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado, a rainy scene Wood says she had longed to paint since the age of 14.
Inspiration for artist Christopher Gerlach has always come from that innate desire to capture the feeling of truly “being there” when viewing the artwork of some beautiful scene or location. Light and color, he says also serve to enhance and inform his painting process. “I have sought to capture that feeling and the fleeting moments of such times in my paintings for many years now following in the footsteps of Claude Monet, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent,” Gerlach says.
Linda Glover Gooch’s oil Monumental Rising, which will be included in the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art this September, explores how clouds impact light and shadow over the Grand Canyon. “Mesmerized by the shadows that dance across the canyon, I find one can get lost in time. The rich colors of the walls are complemented by the cool hues that appear as the weight of a cloud looms above,” Gooch comments, adding that this relationship between clouds and canyon has been a source of inspiration and fascination in many of her paintings.
“As a plein air painter of oil landscapes, I try to capture the light, shadow, color or mood—that which draws me to the subject—and to communicate that feeling to the viewer,” says KK Walling. Walling’s bold brushstrokes and variation in paint texture add emotion and intrigue to her artwork, which the artist says is often inspired by traveling to new places and exploring the Southwest. “Some plein air works are the basis for larger paintings developed in the studio,” she adds.
The inspiration for Dawn Sutherland’s Heart of the Canyon came from the artist’s last hike in Grand Canyon from rim to rim, she says. “There is a beautiful place to rest below Plateau Point on the
Bright Angel Trail just before descending into the Inner Gorge. One can contemplate the heights above and the trail below that leads into the heart of the canyon,” Sutherland says, hence the titling of her oil painting.
“Glacier National Park in Montana is one of the most beautiful parks,” artist Lanny Grant says of his oil painting Bird Woman Falls, describing the dramatic alpine waterfalls and tall stalks of bear grass that bloom on the slopes and meadows in the summer. “An artist needs to accurately portray the unique features that are specific to each of the national parks, including indigenous vegetation, wildlife and geology,” says Grant.
At the Hockaday Museum of Art, artists Deborah Berniklau and
Brent Cotton, along with 21 other American and Canadian artists, will be presenting works inspired by the Waterton-glacier International Peace Park, which links the Glacier National Park in Montana with Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta. Titled A Timeless Legacy: Peace Park 2018, this is the first international art collaboration honoring the Peace Park, and collectors will have the chance to purchase works from this historic event, says Tracy Johnson, executive director at Hockaday Museum of Art. “Both Deborah and Brent have painted in Watertonglacier International Peace Park, Brent focusing on the natural beauty of the waters and landscape and Deborah representing historical ways of life of the Blackfeet in the region,” Johnson says. The exhibition starts on August 14 and will run through December 1.