THE ART JOURNALS OF UTAH ARTIST ROLAND LEE. New watercolors and oil paintings. Awards and exhibits. Art lessons, videos and art books. Travels, sketchbooks and plein air paintings.
While in England this summer I sketched the Tonbridge Castle Gatehouse in my travel sketchbook. The drawing came to the attention of Shaun Jeffery, whose extensive collection of Tonbridge memorabilia is on permanent display in the Tonbridge Castle Museum. After exchanging several emails, I agreed to allow the drawing to become part of the Castle Museum collection. If you are ever in Tonbridge, Kent, England stop by and take a look!
We braved a big winter storm to travel to Salt Lake City over the weekend. Although the roads were indeed treacherous, we survived to enjoy the resulting white blanket of beauty that always follows. We attended a beautiful banquet high above the city in the Joseph Smith building, followed by a wonderful concert featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and orchestra. It was a grand way to usher in the Christmas season and remember the birth of the Savior of the World.
Over the weekend we visited snowy Salt Lake City to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and see the beautiful lights on Temple Square. We also had a nice visit with art collectors Jeff and Karianne Prince who purchased their third Roland Lee painting of Switzerland. All three paintings are beautifully displayed in the living room of their lovely home in Salt Lake city. Over the years they have become special friends.
Jeff and Karianne Prince with their painting of a Swiss Village.
Artist Roland Lee and The Prince's with their Roland Lee painting of Schloss Reitburg, a castle in Switzerland. Jeff spent two years in Switzerland serving as an LDS missionary and has a special place in his heart for the beautiful country and people of Switzerland. Click here to see sketch used to paint Schloss Reitburg
This is the finished painting I've been working on for a couple of weeks. I named it "Solace at Sinawava." The Temple of Sinawava is at the entrance to Zion Narrows.
I've been working on this big painting for two weeks and thought I'd show it off a little. The location is in Zion National Park near the Temple of Sinawava. This is where they filmed my watercolor class for the new documentary on the Zion Centennial. The river is low in the fall but the reflections are amazing with the yellow cottonwoods in full color. I was anxious to get back and start this painting.I should finish the painting off tomorrow.
Sound man holds boom microphone on Sandra Feldman (left) while cameras roll on artists Vanessa McCullough and Lola Krummenacher (center) and Myron Laub (right) as they work on paintings on location by the Virgin River in Zion National Park.
Yesterday I conducted a painting workshop in Zion National Park. But this was a little different. This time we were followed around by a film crew making a video documentary about the Centennial of Zion National Park. Emmy award winning film producer Phil Tuckett, with 30 Emmy awards to his credit, is producing the film leading a crew from the advanced film production program at Dixie State College. In the photo above I stand by the demonstration painting I completed near the Temple of Sinawava.
A Cameraman zooms in on artist John Mangels while John's wife enjoys the show. At first the artists were shy, but once they got into their paintings they forgot about the cameras. The filming took several hours.
Dick Rose works on a small watercolor painting by the Virgin River near the Temple of Sinawava. Dick is president of the Southern Utah Watercolor Society.
This little painting came on the tail end of the paintings for my England and Europe one man show at Mission Gallery. I shot several photos during the process and finally got time to post them. This is a little lane in England.
After doing a quick outline sketch on the watercolor paper I begin with some very broad washes, wet-into-wet, allowing the pigments to blend freely from warm at the top to cool in the shadow areas.
With the underglazes in place and dry, I begin painting the dark areas on the cottages and the distant trees.
Next to the finished painting is the original photo I used as reference. Obviously I always use a lot of artistic license in my paintings. Remember my role as an artist is not to duplicate a photo, but to create a new image based on my own personal experiences.
We enjoyed another watercolor class with some great artists yesterday. We devoted our classtime to a study of how to paint water, and everyone did great. Class members included: Phil Larsen, Lottie Hurst, Lillie Jones, Karen Bettilyon, Vicki Clayton, Shari Cannon, and Gail Alger.
Over 100 people turned out last night for the opening of my new one-person art show of England and European paintings. the show was held in Jane Juber's new art gallery space in Ancestor Square which worked out great. We had lots of room to accommodate the crowd plus seating space for my slide presentation and talk. About 50 people were present for the discussion.
Along with the 15 original paintings, I displayed images from my travel sketchbooks and step-by-step demonstration posters. All in all it was a great evening. The show will remain on display through the month of November. Stop by if you get a chance. Mission Gallery 173 North Main Street St. George UT 84770.
I thought I'd post photos of some of my new paintings as we get ready for my one-man show this Thursday. Maybe just a little preview. This was a house near the Tonbridge Castle in Kent England.
The painting started with a thumbnail value study, then a light outline drawing on the watercolor paper. the paint is applied in glazes from light to dark pigment.
I am a fulltime artist living in southern Utah near Zion National Park. Each year my wife and I travel to various parts of the world where I sketch and paint on location. My watercolor paintings are in over 2200 permanent collections worldwide and my travel sketches were featured in "The Artist's Magazine." Many of my paintings are available as prints and can be viewed at www.rolandlee.com.