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The Grand Canyon Conservancy has announced the names of 22 artists who will be part of the 14th Annual Grand Canyon Celebration of art—and the list includes Lake Oswego artist James McGrew.
The is not the first time that McGrew has been part of the celebration, which has invited artists to paint “en plein air” (outside on location) for a week since 2009.
On his website in 2015, McGrew described the festival as “a sleepless but exhilarating week of chasing fleeting events including dancing cloud shadows and light patterns, afternoon thundershowers, gusting winds, monsoonal midnight lighting storms followed by heavenly rays at sunrise and clouds clinging to the canyon walls.”
This year, McGrew and the other artists will paint along the canyon’s South Rim from Sept. 10 to 16. The public will be invited to watch them at work, and the paintings will be available for purchase once completed.
National parks have long been a prominent presence in McGrew’s life. He was only 4 months old when he was taken on a backpacking trip to Yosemite, and has spent much of his career creating oil paintings of national parks throughout the Western United States.
McGrew also holds degrees in biology, chemistry and geology, as well as an ongoing summer gig as a Yosemite naturalist and ranger. As a painter, he uses elements of impressionism and romanticism to capture the beauty of the country’s national parks, a mission he says is central to his work in his artist’s statement.
“I strive to interpret nature with my brush, not just representing a visual scene, but more importantly, conveying the emotions I felt as influenced by the experience including weather and light, movement and energy,” he says. “I hope my works inspire others to love and protect our natural world and cherish our valuable human interrelationships with each other and the environment.”