Grand Canyon art takes center stage

Second Celebration of Art begins Sept. 11

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. - Dedicated to the goal of funding a permanent art museum on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art will return Sept. 11 for it's second year. Thirty artists are expected to take part in this year's Celebration of Art. Called "Plein Air on the Rim," the event is scheduled for Sept. 11 through Nov. 28.

Proceeds from the event will go toward establishing a permanent art museum at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Well known artist Bruce Aiken, who has been involved in the Celebration of Art since its early stages, along with Brad Wallace, former director of the Grand Canyon Association, called the event a unique one.

"(Wallace) made the proposal and asked me if I would be interested in helping it to move forward, along with artist Dave Haskell from Sedona," Aiken said. "This is only the second year of it of course. We can only hope for the best and that things will continue to improve with it. It's a great event. It's a unique and special show."

The definition of Plein Air painting, he said, can be taken a number of different ways.

"A lot of people seem to want to put it into a box and say it's only 8 by 10 or 11 by 14 or whatever, small-sized oil paintings done very quickly of a landscape on the scene in 10 minutes or 20 minutes or something - and that's what they want to say is a Plein Air painting," Aiken said. "Maybe that's true in some greater scheme of things. For me, personally, anything I execute outside is Plein Air. It means 'open air.' I'm not going to be doing quick 8 by 10 oils of landscapes. I'm going to be doing more studies on the surface of rocks, where I am extracting nature's patterns, beautiful things like that, color fields, texture surfaces, designs and patterns that Mother Nature herself has put into the rocks. I'm just going to be borrowing, spinning and tossing these back out there to show that there is more to see in Grand Canyon National Park besides just the big landscape view. The big landscape view, of course, is dynamic and world class and everybody knows it, etc., and it can't be denied, and I would never deny it, but at this stage in my career, I feel like it is my job to show that there is more to see in Grand Canyon National Park than just the big picture and that is what I'm doing."

Aiken's painting, Red on Red - Memories of the Supergroup, is an example of that style of painting.

"The Red on Red is a painting that I did based on an impression that I got from the surface of the Grand Canyon Supergroup Formation," Aiken said. "They are very colorful formations, dynamic formations. There's little known about them. The average viewer of the Grand Canyon wouldn't even know what I was talking about," Aiken said.

Oil painter Amery Bohling said she enjoys the Plein Air style of painting. Bohling, who has a studio in Phoenix, said she enjoyed being involved in last year's Celebration of Art. She's returning again this year.

"I like being outside mostly. There is something about painting, working outside, that gives a little more life to what you're doing than if you only work in the studio," Bohling said. "A lot of what I like to do is work in Plein Air to get a small study and then bring it back into a studio and do a larger piece that I will put out into galleries, but without being on location painting, it can look stuffy. I like to make as many trips as I can out to the Canyon. You get a very fresh sense of life to your painting."

Bohling said the experience was rewarding enough to make her want to return for the 2010 Celebration of Art.

"We all stayed in the Madeline Albright lodging, which was really amazing. You had all the artists in the same area, so we could just visit with each other," Bohling said. "It was a nice bonding experience for us to all get together and share ideas, because you might learn a trick of the trade you didn't think of using before, like black to make your greens instead of blue, because the greens are so warm at the Canyon. It's also nice that when you go out painting you might run into someone you know. It's nice to have that camaraderie, but still be independent enough to do your thing."

She said artists at the Celebration are well taken care of by their hosts in the national park.

Bohling said she tries to go to the Canyon during every season each year. Mules are one of her favorite Canyon-related subjects, as is evidenced by her painting, Journey Into Winter.

"They have so much personality. It is a lot of fun to paint them," Bohling said.

Bohling works in oils, though she has worked in a number of mediums in the past. She attended school at the University of Arizona and studied abroad in southern France for Plein Air painting.

"The Canyon is such a fascinating place. You are never bored. There is so much going on and the people that work there are so nice. I like going back and knowing I'm going to see familiar faces. It's a home away from home," Bohling said.

More information on the Celebration of Art, including schedules, can be found online at http://www.grandcanyon.org/celebration.asp.