Roland Lee sets up his easel along the Virgin River in Zion National Park as he prepares to paint in the footsteps of Thomas Moran.

Zion Park Superintendent Jock Whitworth purchased my plein air painting of Angel's landing at the Zion Lodge Auction.

Nina and Lloyd Lacook purchased one of my plein air paintings "Emerald Falls" during the wet paint sale at the Maynard Dixon studio.

"Seeing with the eyes, feeling with the heart, and painting from the Soul"

The action of water, wind, and time has surely erased the actual footprints that Thomas Moran and John Wesley Powell left in Zion Canyon in 1873, but the mark they left for posterity is bigger than the Canyon itself.

As part of the 100th anniversary of Zion National Park, I was invited to join 20 other landscape artists and re-trace the steps Moran took in that first visit, recording our own images with paint and canvas. Using Moran's actual sketchbook as a reference, we spent one glorious week working deep in the shadows of Zion's sandstone towers. For me it was a culmination of my life's work. Having painted Zion for over 30 years, I am well acquainted with the grandeur and intimacy of the place. But this was a special time for me.

As each morning began, and the early rays of the sun creeped down the jagged peaks I tried to imagine how Moran must have felt, seeing it all for the first time. I've been there hundreds of times, and my heart still jumps when I see the yellow glow of sunlight warm the top of the Sentinel and Streaked Wall, breaking the chill of the ever-present morning canyon breeze. For an artist, it is water to a thirsty soul.

Thomas Moran used pen lines and simple watercolor studies on a small lined paper sketchbook to make visual notes. But his was not an effort to record acccurate geological information. He was recording first and foremost with his senses the feelings and emotions which must have overpowered him then, as they still overwhelm us today.

Moran sketched in solitude, but we had hundreds of onlookers during the week, stealing quick glances and exchanging nods of approval as the artists worked. The excitement was evident in their faces as they spoke cheerily, acknowledged our artistics efforts, then hurried off with water bottles, walking sticks, and childlike eagerness in their eyes to explore Zion's secrets. We took different paths, but we were all there for the same purpose. To fill our souls with nature's beauty and wonder.

Early one morning as I set up my easel under the Sentinel with the brisk wind tugging at my sketchbook pages, I think I knew what Moran felt. Maybe the little watercolor painting I completed that morning didn't have the grandeur and drama of the big studio painting I would complete later, just as Moran's sketches didn't match his finished oils. But without the visit, without being there, without experiencing it all for myself, I would never have the rich wealth of emotion that spills out when I make my paintings.

Moran's paintings from several visits to Zion Canyon influenced the place becoming Mukuntuweap National Monument in 1909. My own paintings will never match his in impact or scale, but I felt a kindred spirit as I walked in his footsteps, seeing the same grand monoliths, and recording my own images that say, "I see it with my eyes, I feel it with my heart, but I paint it with my soul."

-- Roland Lee April 2009

Participating artists include: Jack Bangerter, Mark Bangerter, Arlene Braithwaite, Anne Weiler-Brown, Armand Cabrera, Royden Card, Jill Carver, G. Russell Case, Donna Catotti, Bill Cramer, Nancy Denzler, Susan Gallacher, Sharon Graham, Brad Holt, Travis Humphreys, Donal C. Jolley, Bufalo Kaplinski, Roland Lee, Doug Martin, Charles Muench, Kate Starling.

Group photo of participating artists

See more photos of the "Footsteps of Thomas Moran" Plein Air Invitational at Zion National Park