Image of the Day, April 29, 2012

By Donna Poutlon

“I decided very early that I would be an American painter. I travelled the county over, and the West appealed to me. There is no phase of landscape in which we are not richer, more varied and interesting… ” – Thomas Moran

Thomas Moran, watercolor. Credit: Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts.Traveling with John Wesley Powell during the summer of 1873, Thomas Moran painted Colburn’s Butte. Powell often named lakes and mountains after people on his expeditions. He named the peak after J.E. Colburn a writer for the New York Times who was travelling with the survey expedition to record his impressions of the southwest for a chapter in William Cullen Bryan’s Picturesque American.

Photograph of a Paiute Youth, Thomas Moran, and J.E. Colburn, 1873. Credit: Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts.

Painting of the Day, October 21, 2011

By Donna Poulton

Thomas Moran (1837 – 1926), Pack Trail, Grand Canyon, grisaille on board, 11 x 6 in. 

The value range achieved with grisaille, or the use of monochromatic color, made it easier for Moran to translate the sketch Pack Trail, Grand Canyon into a black and white lithograph that would have been used for one of the many commissions he did for magazines and newspapers.

“Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts”

"Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts" - By Donna L. Poulton and Vern G. Swanson - Gibbs Smith Publishing

-- Jacket Cover: Edgar Payne, "Red Mesa, Monument Valley, Utah" Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Famous movie director John Ford once exclaimed, “…Monument Valley was my greatest star.” 

--James Swinnerton, “Desert Clouds”  Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

But long before Ford lionized these great icons of the southwest, paintings of the sweeping desert and colorful canyon country of Utah’s plateau province had captured the popular imagination of American and European audiences.

--Salomon Nunes Carvalho, “Natural Obelisks” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Thomas Moran in Zion Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Vividly illustrated and exhaustively researched, “Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts” is the first comprehensive history of the artists who painted Utah’s Red Rock with more than 300 paintings spanning 155 years of art.

--David Meikle “View of Zion Canyon” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Clay Wagstaff “Late October Evening” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

The book explores the contrasts between painters who called Utah home and those who explored and visited.  The book looks at lively anecdotes of the “artist as explorer,” including John Wesley Powell’s harrowing trip down the Colorado River, artist Solomon Nunes Carvalho’s recovery from the brink of starvation, and Richard Kern’s death at the hands of the Paiutes.

--David Meikle “Mount Carmel Afternoon” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Edie Roberson “Annie’s Trip to Southern Utah” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Love of the western landscape has to do with the capacity of the viewer to experience vast space.  To appreciate the desert terrain, one has to be comfortable with an inscrutable universe.  Whether existential or spiritual, these themes are evoked in the modern paintings of Ed Mell, Conrad Buff, Maynard Dixon, Gary E. Smith and many others.

--Ed Mell “Canyon Light and Rain” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

--Gary E. Smith “Canyon Dweller” Credit: Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

Western Landscape Goes East

by Donna Poulton

Thomas Moran's 19^th Century paintings of the western landscape continue to migrate to the East. The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. recently received a gift of the famed artist’s painting Green River Cliffs, Wyoming from collector Vern Milligan who purchased it in 1994 for $2.7 million.

Moran is well known for his powerful paintings of the West. His Grand Canon of the Yellowstone, and Chasm of the Colorado were bought by Congress to grace the U.S. Capitol in the 1870s.

But it is his paintings of Green River Wyoming that are attracting attention and large auction records.  In 2008, his 1878 painting of Green River of Wyoming sold for a staggering $17.7 million.

Moran made numerous treks to the west, most often on the Transcontinental Railroad crossing the Green River at Green River, Wyoming. This was also the embarkation point of John Wesley Powell’s heroic adventure to run the course of the Green and Colorado Rivers.

John Wesley Powell on Green River. Photo courtesy of Utah Historic Society

Train Station in Green River, Wyoming. Photo courtesy of Wyoming Tales and Trails

A true test of the market will happen at the Scottsdale Art Auction on April 2^nd, 2011 when Moran’s Indian Summer, Green River, Wyoming is sold to the highest bidder. The painting is smaller than others that have sold for high prices and it was painted later in Moran’s life, but if it follows recent trends, it might bring well over the high estimate of $5 million.

Green River, Wyoming. Photos by C.N. Plummer