47 East 200 North St. George, UT 84770 (435) 627-4525 museum@sgcity.org Mon - Sat: 10am - 5pm 3rd Thursday 10am - 9pm Return to Current Exhibits Return to Past Exhibits Roland Lee’s Canyon Country Paintings Show available: March 31, 2007 through July 07, 2007 Roland Lee’s Canyon Country Paintings will be in conjunction with Glen Blakley’s Pottery. This exhibit will unite two of Southern Utah’s finest artists in one gallery. Roland Lee graduated from Brigham Young University in 1971. His career started as an illustrator for several advertising agencies in southern California. Two years later he moved to St. George to escape the crowded city and to get closer to nature. He opened a small art studio. He studied on his own. He took water color workshops at Zion Park and Lake Powell. He traveled extensively. He taught at Dixie College. Eventually he got exposure in the bigger markets so that collectors knew who he was and where to find his work. His career was established. He devotes full-time to painting and teaching from his studio located in historic downtown St. George, Utah. Each year he travels to various parts of the world where he sketches and paints on location. He has become nationally known for his transparent watercolors, using no white, black or opaque paints. Awards in over 40 invitational juried shows have been won by Roland, including the Transparent Watercolor Society of America and the Arts for the Parks Top 100. His originals can be found in over 900 public and private collections throughout the U.S. and several foreign countries. His travel sketches were featured in April 2005 issue of “The Artist’s Magazine”. Roland lives in southern Utah because he loves the landscape. Zion National Park is a special favorite. He says it is the driving force behind his work. “”Roland Lee’s Canyon Country” is a potpourri of personal images from my forays into the canyons of southern Utah. Some of the places may seem familiar, others may not. Some are majestic, while others are intimate. My goal was to capture the vistas in a way that shows my love and respect for the land which I call home. As an artist I have had the opportunity to travel and paint some of the most beautiful places in the world. But always when I return to my home in the Canyon Country of Southern Utah, I feel a sense of peace and comfort that I can find nowhere else. My own pioneer ancestors struggled to tame this land and make it blossom. In the end they realized that this land has a will of its own that is not easily tamed. Even today nature’s forces can convert our lovely golf courses and comfortable homes into sandy river bottom material in just minutes. Civilizations may come and go here, but the earth remains—being shaped and re-shaped by the forces of water, wind, and time. The result is an incredible arrangement of towers and canyons-land turned up on edge revealing the underbelly of time gone by. Geologists and vacationers alike travel here from all over the globe to get a first hand glimpse of it. For me, this land clutches my soul and pulls me in with a power that is unstoppable. My response is to let go and allow it to swallow me up. I am content in Canyon Country and will probably be exploring its hidden places and painting its vistas until the day I die.” Roland Lee will be giving a free 3rd Thursday Art Conversation on April 19 at 7pm at the Museum.