Roland at Bryce Canyon Featured in Plein Air Today Article

An article about my exploits at Bryce Canyon National Park appeared in "Plein Air Today" a weekly online plein air magazine. Click here to read the article.

Roland Lee demonstrates plein air painting at Bryce Canyon National Park

Kids Enjoy Painting with Roland Lee at Bryce Canyon Festival

Artist Roland Lee with young plein air painters at Bryce Canyon National Park Geology Festival. Artists include: Kade, Zach, Sarah, Sam, Nate, Audrey, and Katelyn

We set up tables with watercolor paints, brushes, and paper during my plein air painting demonstrations out on the rim at Bryce Canyon National Park. Both adults and children went right to work and created their plein air interpretations of the vistas. What a fun way to spend the day.

Everyone got involved at Bryce Canyon Plein Air event painting with Roland Lee

Nate Lemon painted a portrait of my backside while I was painting.

The kids art table at Bryce Canyon National Park Geology Festival

Roland Lee with a budding young plein air painter

Sarah Power BFA from Indiana showed the kids how it's done

Todd Cullings with Nate Lemon who was very proud of his painting

Mom and son worked together on a painting

Wow! Adults got into the act as well. 

Jane Shepard, an accomplished painter and campground host did an awesome painting of the Bryce Hoodoos

Painting with the grandkids

It was fun to have some of my grandkids stop by the SUMA Chasing Light plein air event in Cedar City Utah. After painting for a week outdoors, all 15 artists did painting demos on Saturday at the Southern Utah Museum of Art on the campus of Southern Utah University.

Roland and Nellie Lee with grandkids, Keenan, Kade, Zach, Sarah, and Sam 

Roland Lee demonstrates watercolor for his grandaughter Sarah at the SUMA Chasing Light plein Air event.

Sarah Simmons gets a turn working on Roland Lee's painting

St. George Art Festival First Place Award

My new 20-foot long tent served us well this year

"Sinawava Silence" received two First Place awards at this years show
We enjoyed two days of sunny St. George weather Easter weekend at the St. George Art Festival. Over 110 artists participated and I was fortunate to receive both First Place in Watercolor and First Place in the Two-dimensional art categories. This was the first time I exhibited the award-winning painting "Sinawava Silence," a pastoral river scene in Zion National Park. We also sold several other originals, lots of prints, and all the art cards we had with us. So it was a successful event all around. What is the most fun, is seeing previous collectors and many friends from past shows, plus all my delightful kids and grandkids were there to help me. Literally thousands of people flock to the show annually which is held in the St. George Town Square.
My three granddaughters sketching at my booth

My friend, Randy Paul, and I pose in front of my award winning painting

Sunshine and Good Times Come Together at the St. George Art Festival

We enjoyed great sunny weather and huge crowds at the St. George Art Festival over the weekend. All in all it was a success with good painting sales and pleasant visits with old friends, new collectors, and most of my grandkids. For our family it's a tradition to all congregate in downtown St. George on Easter weekend for the art show.

My double booth wasn't fancy but I got a lot of paintings on display. If you look closely you'll see a Purchase Award ribbon (my favorite award.)

My son Jon and his adoring children

Alyssa holds her new little sister Becca who decided to arrive in time for the festivities. You can see Becca's reaction to my artwork. Hmmmm.

Snow Cones were the big hit for kids (Tiger's blood was the favorite flavor.)

St. George's flowers in the Spring are a welcome relief for those arriving from the snowy north.

Sidewalk chalk murals were just some of the many activities for children at the St. George Art Festival.

How to Help Kids Enjoy Art

Above: Max hard at work on a complex pencil drawing. Left: Does this look like fun or what? Hannah, Alyssa, and Megan create masterpieces.

While in the Richfield area for a watercolor workshop, my son Jon and his wife Jolynn invited me to conduct a mini-workshop for my grandkids and their home-school group. So I hauled up ten palettes, three fist-fulls of watercolor brushes, some tube paints, pencils, lots of heavy paper and ten neat watercolor boards with grandpa's "special" watercolor paper mounted and ready to go.

The excitement level was high as I lavishly laid out all that good stuff, and told them they could use whatever they wanted, as much as they wanted, and there were "no rules." Children don't need any direction discipline when it comes to art -- they are naturals. All they really need is fun materials, space to work, and the freedom to create.

Art does not mean the same thing to kids under 12 as it does to adults. Children's art is NOT about conveying realistic images of nature. It's a language for them to describe and explore their feelings and thoughts, and their understanding of the bigger world around them. They readily adopt "symbols" to tell all about their experiences. These symbols aren't meant to resemble real objects from nature. So it's pointless for adults to intervene and try to help them with shadows, perspective etc. The kids don't know what you're talking about and it's meaningless to them until about the Junior high school years.

So how did my "Kids Workshop" turn out? Well, after two hours they were still going strong, and didn't want to quit. Later that night, they wanted to do it all again. My recommendation to parents, is just provide lots of materials in an appropriate place, and turn them loose. All kids know what to do.

Just a quick note to parents: Watercolor is usually a very poor medium for young children because they have difficulty controlling it. A wonderful back-run enjoyed by an adult artist is often perceived as a "goof" or mistake by a child. Kids usually feel more comfortable with crayons and markers because they are learning to gain control of their environment. And copy paper is really cheap. Rave about what they make and let them tell you all about it. Then pin their work up on the fridge for everyone to see. They will love it, and by the time they are ready for art lessons, they will still love it!

Painting with the Grandkids

Nellie and I flew to Houston for a week of visiting our grandkids Matty, Katie, and Ally. Of course we got in a little quality art time with Grandpa's special paints. The girls just enjoyed the sheer ecstacy of paint on paper, but Matty and I poured our creative energies into a Space and Rocket Fest.


Painting the solar system


My amazing "X-wing Space Cruiser"


Matty's paintings of NASA rockets showing the history of manned space flight

PLein Air Festival Brings New Collectors

The two-day Sale portion of the Thanksgiving Point Plein Air Festival began today. I was fortunate to have Katherine Piper purchase my watercolor painting of "The Secret Garden" this morning. She walks daily in the gardens and stopped by yesterday when I was finishing the painting, so she had a chance to see me work on it in person.

A "Quick Draw" event took place in the afternoon. Each artist had 90 minutes to complete a plein air painting, frame it, and submit it for judging. Many people enjoyed watching as the artists worked. Among those who stayed to see me finish my painting was Chris Cameron left, and Di Ann Mott.

My grandkids Emma, Ellie, and Josh stopped by to encourage me with a kiss and a hug, before heading off to do painting and sculpture at the Children's art area.

The finished watercolor painting "Flowers and Stone" ready to enter in the competition.

The Next Generation of Artists, and boy are they good!

Okay so I took a month off of blogging, but I wasn't slacking. Nellie and I have been on the road visiting our grandkids -- and since we've got 20 of them, that takes awhile. But oh, the talent! I took my travel watercolor sets with me and we had "painting time with Grandpa." Check the photos below and you can see there is no lack of talent in this family. It is so much fun to watch them dive in and sling paint on whatever surface is available. The only hard part was getting them to quit. Aint painting fun?











I know this looks suspicious, but it is really the best set-up ever. Emma and Ellie's mom lets them paint with chalk and water on their vinyl fence. When I asked Ellie what she was painting she said she was painting a "website." Hmmm, suppose her dad is a computer engineer?

Thoughts on Turning 60

Well I finally reached the pinnacle of my life. Yep, I turned 60. Of course, just when I thought I would start getting senior discounts, they pushed the "real" senior demarcation line up to age 62. Oh well, I don't really feel much older than 59anyway. In an effort to make me feel a little better, my kids and grandkids threw a fun birthday bash over the weekend at my son Jon's home near Richfield Utah.



One of the funnest gifts was a wonderful "Tribute to Grandpa" book with thoughts and pictures from everybody about their experiences with me over the years. My grandkids and I read it together over and over.



A group hug for Grandpa Lee. The best part of the party was getting to see most of my cute grandkids and spend time with them. I'll have all of them with us over Easter weekend when Jana and her family come up from Houston.



Jon and his friend Russ invited me on a bass fishing trip to Lake Powell, and I figured I deserved a little vacation for my birthday. The weather was great, and even though the water is still too cold, we caught some nice fish, and I caught some z's in the afternoon sun. Ahhh, what a great birthday.



My grandson Travis and his friend Hayden tagged along on our fishing trip and both caught some nice fish. My son Jon holds the bass in this picture.

Hiking with the grandkids in Zion National Park

We had a board meeting of the Zion Natural History Association March 21 at Zion National Park. The meeting lasted all morning and concluded with a nice lunch. My daughter Jodi brought her three boys up for a little outdoor adventure in the canyon. After the meeting I joined them on the Pa'Rus trail where they excitedly told me about a little owl they had seen up in one of the trees. There's a lot to do in Zion for even very young children -- even kids in strollers! Hats off to all the moms like Jodi who get their kids outdoors to discover what a great place we live in.

My Newest Work of Art - A Masterpiece!

I thought I'd show you all my latest artistic creation. During the Zion Centennial Art Show festivities Nellie was noticeably absent. She was home watching our grandkids while Jon and Jolynn were over at Dixie Medical Center ushering our newest grandson into the world. His name is Dallin James Lee and he's grandchild number 18 for us. I said he was named after Cyrus Dallin the great sculptor, and someone else said no, he's named after Dallin Oaks. But I think they just liked the name Dallin. We've enjoyed a very busy couple of days as we had Jon and the grandkids all staying with us. Jolynn and Dallin are doing great. They're both a little tired and so are we. This afternoon they went back to their home in Annabella Utah.

My New Grandson

Early this morning we celebrated the arrival of a new grandson. He is our 16th grandchild, so we are very experienced grandparents--professionals actually. We had no idea our grandkids would be so cute. My wife Nellie headed north this morning to help out with the other kids. I'll join them on Thursday and see the little guy first hand. But until then, here's a photo, compliments of Jason's cell phone camera.

Young Artists

My grandkids visited this week from Highland Utah. and created this fantastic artwork while I was giving my presentation at the St. George Art Museum Thursday night.