Palmer's Gallery in Salt Lake City hosts the Spring Exhibition of the Utah Watercolor Society

While in Salt Lake City I delivered two of my original watercolor paintings to Palmer's Gallery on Broadway Street. The gallery will host the Spring Exhibition of the Utah Watercolor Society which kicks off with an opening reception next week. I was impressed with the design and character of the Palmer Gallery. It is going to be an excellent place to view some of the best Utah watercolor paintings as juried by noted artist Jean Grastorf. I was fortunate to have two watercolor paintings selected including "Stone Buttress" and "Banjo Man." Thanks to Exhibit chairperson Pat Heberling and the other volunteers for all their work putting this show together.

Spring Blossoms at the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival

Thanksgiving Point, in Lehi, Utah is well-known for its expansive and well-manicured gardens covering zillions of acres. Visitors of all ages enjoy discovering such delights as the "secret garden," a crashing waterfall, and endless flower displays all connected by winding stone paths and arched foot bridges. We took our grandkids and spent a couple of hours strolling through the gardens yesterday and were treated to the final glory of the annual Tulip Festival.

Tulips of every type, color, and size were evident everywhere we looked. Of course photographers and artists were taking advantage of the display and I threw in with some photos of my own. This summer there will be a big Plein Air Art Festival and painting competition in the gardens and I just might sign up. If nothing else the Tulips got our senses fired up for our trip to the Netherlands in a couple of weeks.

Utah Watercolor Society May Meeting at the Historic Wheeler Farm

Prior to the monthly meeting of the Utah Watercolor Society in Salt Lake City last night, I strolled through old Wheeler Farm where the meeting was held. My sketchbooks are full of drawings from this wonderful working farm and this time I shot a few reference photos too as the last rays of sun put a touch of gold on the place.

Left: A pencil drawing done on the grounds of the historic Wheeler Farm in Murray Utah. This sketch was done on location using a Watson-Guptil hardbound sketchbook and a 6B pencil. I use this same set-up for sketching on location all over the world.

Jean Grastorf presented an interesting demonstration at our monthly UWS meeting last night. Jean also presented a three day workshop for the group as well as judged the UWS Spring Juried Exhibition. Jean is very well-known in the watercolor world for her unique method of "pouring watercolor" which has won her membership in most of the watercolor groups and a myriad of awards. She meticulously masks out various parts of her paintings then pours mixtures of watercolor over the paper in various progressive steps. The results are very rich and colorful as you can see by her painting "Southern Breeze" above.

Plein Air Painting at the Kayenta Desert Bloom Art Festival

Roland Lee paints outdoors at the Kayenta Desert Bloom Art Festival while Linda and Dave Johannessen and Joan and John Mangels give advice.

I was invited to be one of the guest artists to paint outdoors at the new Desert Bloom Art Festival in Kayenta. I did some quick sketches of the desert arboretum flowers and cactuses, then did a quick watercolor study of pink cactus blossoms. A couple of artist friends hung around to watch and we had a mini-lesson in negative painting. My wife made the day when she showed up with some hot home-made tamales.

Robert Shepherd Painting added to my Personal Art Collection

Robert Shepherd Painting of Paradise Canyon in Southern Utah near St. George in personal art collection of Roland L. Lee

Robert Shepherd was one of my most revered mentors when I began painting. He passed away many years ago but I was fortunate to inherit his easel, taboret, and many of his personal art books. After selling my first gallery painting in 1980 I purchased one of Robert Shepherd's paintings with the proceeds -- and I still had to make time payments on it. But it hangs in my home proudly.

Today I was fortunate to acquire another full sheet original watercolor painting by Robert Shepherd from one of his major collectors and personal friends. I am thrilled with my new acquisition!

May Watercolor Painting Workshop

May watercolor worshop students included: (Back row)Susan Tyler, Linda Alexander, Joanne Asay, Gail Alger. (Front) John Mangels, Linda Johannessen, Elaine Winget.

I enjoyed teaching a watercolor painting workshop the last two days at A Passion for Painting Art Gallery in St. George Utah. This is my last watercolor landscape workshop of the season as I get ready to leave for ur European painting trip. I used both powerpoint demonstrations and painting demonstrations to teach concepts of learning to see light in the landscape. This was a great group of talented artists and they really grasped the concept of negative painting in watercolor.

A quick two minute watercolor painting showing how to use negative painting to create a sagebrush.

Virgin River in Zion Canyon Step by Step Watercolor Painting Demonstration

"A Patch of blue" Watercolor painting of the Virgin River in Zion canyon by Roland Lee

This is a big 22" x 30" full-sheet watercolor painting I started last week and finished up today. I am trying to combine some of the water reflection painting techniques I learned from David Drummond (see my Lake Powell paintings), with the more traditional reflection painting technique I often use for rivers. What caught my attention in the scene was the colorful reflection in the still part of the river. A look at the painting will tell you why I call it "A Patch of Blue." Click here for purchase information on this painting

Click on step-by-step paintings below for enlarged views

Photos of Desert Tortoises near St. George, Utah in the Red Clfifs Desert Reserve

I had another close encounter of the Tortoise kind on my walk in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. As I walked up the trail I spotted a tortoise ambling up the trail towards me. He was about 30 feet away, so I just stopped and stood still thinking he would divert his path. Instad he got closer and closer without turning. then I discovered what he was after. He walked right up into my shadow and plunked himself down for a nice rest in a shady spot right at my feet.

When I finally moved he quickly ducked in his shell, then wandered off into the desert shrubs. I don't know who was more surprised, him or me.

Click to see some more Roland Lee photos of desert tortoises in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve

Series of Old Nauvoo Paintings - Painting of Nauvoo Blacksmith Shop and Red Brick Store

Roland Lee painting of Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store in old Nauvoo Illinois. My ancestor James Henry Rollins worked in this store Click here for more information about this painting



Roland Lee painting of the Webb Blacksmith and Farrier shop in Nauvoo Illinois. My ancestor Orin Nelson Woodbury worked in this shop. Click here for more information about this painting

Last summer we went on a LDS Church History Trip across the United States following the old Mormon Pioneer Trail, a route followed by many of my own pioneer ancestors. Of course I completed a number of drawings along the way in my travel sketchbook with the intention of doing a series of pioneer paintings. With encouragement from other family members I keyed in places where my ancestors lived and worked. For the past month I have been working on a couple of these paintings and it's been slow going. I kept changing them in one way or another tryng to capture what I both saw and felt about the experience.

I was able to follow the painting process on both of them with step by step photos which I will post as soon as I can get them ready for downloading. For now here are the two paintings.

James Henry Rollins Pioneer History

Joshua Trees and Cactus Flowers

I took my wife to the airport in Las Vegas (off to see our new granddaughter in Houston)and on the way back this morning I decided to use the Old Highway and stop off at the Woodbury Desert Reserve. Located on the Beaver Dam slope near Littlefield it is a forest of gnarly twisted Joshua Trees. The Joshua blooms were done but the wildflowers were perfect. Of course I had to share a few more pictures with you.

I noticed a strange side effect from my wildflower searches -- hay fever! I've been sneezing all day today, so I might have to cut back a little til the pollen quits blowing around.