Painting Water in Watercolor Workshop

We just finished two wonderful days studying the ins and outs of painting water in watercolor. 15 excellent artists joined me for a two-day workshop sponsored by Warren and Carol Larson and the Hurricane Valley Arts Alliance. It's always a great experience to rub shoulders with fellow artists, but this group was especially talented and amiable. Participants included: John and Karel Armstrong from Prescott Arizona; Mark Gunn Rose from American Falls Idaho; Laura Huddleston from Snowflake Arizona; Barbara Malmberg from Riverside California; Johanna Monroe from Santa Rosa California; Pete Sauer from Salt Lake City Utah; Ann Williams from Springdale Utah; Michael Smith from Ivins Utah; Bill Sherwin from St. George Utah; John Mangels from St. George Utah; Shirlee Last from Hurricane Utah; John Griffith from Washington Utah;Daniel Fernie from St. George Utah; Eiko Anderson from Logan Utah. Click to see photos

New Roland Lee Gallery opens at Zion Mtn Ranch

Yep, we're officially open. We finally launched the new Roland Lee Art Gallery at Zion Mountain Ranch. Located inside the ZMR Trading Post just a mile from the east entrance to Zion National Park on SR9 we've partnered with Kevin McLaws to exhibit my original landscape paintings and prints of Zion and the surrounding areas. Our signs aren't up yet and we've got a few finishing touches to add, but we'll be in full swing in time for the busy vacation season. We'll also display and sell the amazing western bronze sculptures of Jerry Anderson. I hope to spend time up their this summer. Look forward to an open house celebration soon.

Zion Mountain Ranch resort is unique in that it is dedicated to preserving the pristine natural surroundings of its thousands of acres of high mountain meadows and forests that border Zion Park. Part of the preservation effort is to make a permanent home for the ranch’s buffalo herd.

Zion Painting on cover of SkyWest inflight magazine

I was pleased to have one of my Zion paintings grace the cover of the March/April 2011 issue of SkyWest, the inflight magazine of SkyWest and Delta Express airlines. They used my painting "A Patch of Blue" which depicts a peaceful scene along the north fork of the Virgin River in Zion National Park. They also quoted me in a travel article and I was featured in a sidebar.

College Art Tour of California Museums

The blossoms were in bloom at the Huntington Gardens

Nellie and I were fortunate to be invited to accompany a Dixie State College bus tour to California this week. It always charges up the juices to see fantastic art pieces up close and share the experience with other art appreciators. We visited the Getty museum, LA Art Museum, Getty Villa in Malibu, The Norton Simon museum in Pasadena, The Huntington Library and Gardens, and had a little time for the beach. My overall favorite place is the new Getty Art Museum in Los Angeles. The edifice itself and gardens are stunning by themselves. I always spend the first hour outside just enjoying the sheer design magnificence of the architecture and water feature. From every angle it is a design wonder, juxtaposing hard edges with amorphic natural shapes, with emphasis on the element of texture. And of course the art inside is fabulous indeed.

The recently completed Chinese Garden at the Huntington


Seeing the original artwork up-close is really a treat. Nellie rests her feet while some pretty famous paintings keep an eye on her.



I loved the striking contrast of hard edges and soft graceful curves at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles




The Roman gardens at the Getty Villa in Malibu

My long-time friend and art professor at Dixie State College, Glen Blakely, has introduced thousands of students and community people to the world of art, through his guided trips to Europe, Los Angeles and San Francisco museums.

Roland Lee Painting Receives award at Sears Invitational

The Dixie State College Sears Invitational Art Show kicked off yesterday with a gala banquet and a great watercolor painting demonstration by one of my favorite artists, Ian Ramsay. Ramsay won the purchase award last year, which qualified him to be this year's art seminar presenter as well as the juror of awards for the show. I was pleased to receive a third place ribbon for my painting of Lake Powell, "Mirrors of Stone." I was also grateful that my painting of Zion Canyon, "Zion Riverwalk" also sold at the show last night. My dear friend, Kristi Grussendorf received the blue ribbon in watercolor in her first time at the show. The show features hundreds of paintings by top artists in all media, and will be on exhibit in the Eccles Gallery on the campus through March 27.

Award at UWS Show in Ogden, UT

I was glad to get two paintings accepted into the Utah Watercolor Society Two-Star/Signature Show and was pleased to also receive an Award of Merit. My watercolor painting "Reflections of Solitude", a painting of Lake Powell, received the award while my painting "Scotney Tower" was also part of the exhibit. We traveled to Ogden, Utah for the opening reception at the Eccles Art Center in Ogden, Utah and enjoyed seeing a great exhibit and renewing acquaintances with all my fellow artists from UWS. Special thanks to show organizer Bethann Swanson for all her hard work and to Maura Naughton for safely delivering my paintings. I'm grateful to belong to such a well-run organization.

Painting Winter Snow in Watercolor

Once each winter I conduct a special workshop dealing with How to paint snow in watercolor. I love painting snow scenes but I am not particularly fond of the cold so I don't do a lot of outdoor painting in the winter. Instead I use my pocket camera and bravely dash out into the cold and shoot like crazy, then retire to the warmth of my studio to do my painting. All the reference material we used in this class was shot in the last few weeks up at the Clear Creek Ranch and at our cabin on the east border of Zion National Park. We had plenty of snow to work so I put together a PowerPoint showing how to paint the effect of heavy snowfall on evergreens and how reflected light and cast shadows can be used to describe mass and form in the winter landscape. It was a great class with some of my most accomplished students. The paintings shown here were done as demonstrations in class and are about 5" x 8" in size.

Wet Weather and Watercolor

Left: "North Fork of the Virgin River" 8 x 12 by Roland Lee

We have had unprecedented moisture in the state of Utah the past few days, which is fortunate for the ski resorts but disastrous for the canyons and deserts. We experienced both as we were pounded by the white stuff while visiting our grandkids in northern Utah, then endured a looooong snowy drive back home only to find the southern deserts being flooded by burgeoning rivers. It's amazing to see nature's incredible power at work and see the landscape carved before our eyes. It is indeed a thing of beauty and terror at the same time. Today I posted a painting on my website of the north fork of the Virgin River the way it looked only a short time ago--quiet, gentle, and harmless. The irony is obvious.

Underneath that big pile of white stuff is my truck. Brrrrr!

Flying with the Wright Brothers at the National Finals Rodeo

Roland Lee (center) with Saddle Bronc riders Jesse Wright (left) and Cody Wright at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas Nevada.

Each year we head south to Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo. Of course we spend plenty of time checking out the artists and artisans at the "Cowboy Christmas" show before the rodeo.While there yesterday we stopped at G bar G to visit with a couple of our Utah contestants, brothers Cody Wright and Jesse Wright who are ranked (today) #1 and #3 in the world in Saddle Bronc.

Buckaroos and Artists -- Waddie Mitchell and the Arizona Strip

The Arizona Strip Interpretive Association held their annual fund-raising banquet and auction last night. As in most years, I donated a piece of art for their silent auction. In addition to a great dinner, we saw a preview of the new documentary by Phil Tuckett on the CCC camps on the Arizona Strip. But the highlight was a performance by everyone's favorite cowboy poet, Waddie Mitchell. My wife Nellie and I were fortunate enough to sit with Debbie and Lyman Hafen, and Lisa and Waddie Mitchell during dinner. Afterwards Waddie treated us to some of his delightful cowboy humor spoken with the slow Buckaroo drawl and precise timing that only he can deliver. I'm often asked to donate art to auctions, but I'm seldom entertained as well as we were last night.