The Estes Park Museum

August 31, 2010

The Estes Park Museum is offering a drawing class entitled “Drawing from the Estes Park Museum Collection” on Friday, September 10  and Friday, October 1 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.   Taught by local artist Patricia Greenberg, students will develop drawing skills by studying still life set-ups consisting of historic objects from the Museum’s collection.  Greenberg will guide students to interpret the lines, shapes, shading, and textures of a variety of objects.  In September, the group will study colorful Ute Indian objects recently donated to the Museum.  The October course will be facilitated in the Main Gallery of the Museum allowing participants the opportunity to draw items on display. 

Students may enroll in one or both of the sessions.  The cost is $8 per session for members of the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc. and $12 per session for non-members.  Registration is currently open for both sessions.  To reserve a space, call the Estes Park Museum at (970) 586-6256.

Class participants should bring their own drawing pencils, colored pencils if you wish, a 9” by 12” sketch pad and erasers.  Class size for each session is limited to ten people ages twelve and over.  All skill levels are welcome as there will be plenty of time for personal instruction.

August 31, 2010

The Historic Fall River Hydroplant, listed on the National Register, was built by F. O. Stanley to provide electric power to the Stanley Hotel when it opened in 1909 and was the exclusive source of electricity for the Town of Estes Park until the 1940s.  Visit the Hydroplant to learn the details of its fascinating story.  Hours are 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. daily except Mondays.  Located at 1754 Fish Hatchery Road, the Hydroplant’s last day of the season will be September 5^th.   It will reopen the day after Memorial Day in 2011.  Admission is free.  Private tours are available for a small fee by calling 970-577-3762. For more information, visit www.estes.org/hydroplant.   

August 31, 2010

The Estes Park Museum will be closed on Monday, September 6^th in recognition of Labor Day.  It will reopen on Tuesday, September 7^th.  The Museum will observe summer hours through the month of October, open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.   From November through April, it will be open Friday and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.  Current exhibits at the Museum include In the Footsteps of Isabella Bird: Adventures in Twin Time Travel in the National Park Service Headquarters building and The Stirling Legacy in the Main Gallery. 

Herbal Tea and Salve Making Workshop

August 10, 2010

On Saturday, August 21^st Rebecca Luna, owner and founder of Rebecca’s Herbal Apothecary in Boulder, will lead a workshop on the art of botanical medicine making.  This session will take place at the Estes Park Museum, located at 200 Fourth Street at 2:00 p.m.  Participants will make tea and observe a demonstration on creating hand salve made of native Coloradoan plants to bring home with them at the end of the program.  Advanced registration is required in addition to a $5 materials fee payable by cash the day of the program.  Call the Museum at 970-577-3762 to register. 

Luna has been steeped in Herbalism since the early 1990s when she attended Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies (RMCBS), where she received both her Herbalist and Clinical Herbalist certifications.  She was a core faculty member at RMCBS and also taught at Bastyr University in Seattle Washington.   Today her independent business seeks to connect the community with botanical medicine by providing raw materials, education and carefully crafted products with the belief that these services will empower the community to reclaim health and knowledge about our collective environment.  Rebecca and her staff encourage others to use and create medicines like our grandparents and great-grandparents did.  Apothecaries carry raw plants, seeds, and oils that are blended to ease specific human ailments.  Join Rebecca when she guides participants on how to blend tea drinks made from locally grown plants, a Colorado tradition.  In addition to speaking about the benefits of the home-made tea, Rebecca will share her knowledge about therapeutic properties of native herbs infused into a hand salve for class participants to take home.   

Fur, Fortune, and Empire: Author Talk and Slide Show

July 28, 2010

The public is invited to a talk, slide show, and book signing by Eric Jay Dolin, on his new book Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America at the Estes Park Museum on Friday, July 30^th at 6:00 p.m. The event is free.

Eric Jay Dolin traces the dramatic rise and fall of the American fur industry, beginning in the early 1600s, from the first Dutch encounters with the Indians to the rise of the conservation movement in the late nineteenth century. Populated by a larger-than-life cast—including Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant; President Thomas Jefferson; America’s first multimillionaire, John Jacob Astor; and mountain man Kit Carson—Fur, Fortune, and Empire is the most comprehensive and compelling history of the American fur trade ever written.

Eric Jay Dolin is the author of Leviathan: The History of Whaling In America, which was chosen as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe.  A graduate of Brown, Yale, and MIT, where he received his Ph.D. in environmental policy, he lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children. 

July 28, 2010

The Estes Park Museum is offering for the second year in a row, a series of three drawing classes entitled “Drawing from the Estes Park Museum Collection.”  Taught by local artist Patricia Greenberg, students will develop drawing skills by studying historic objects from the Museum’s collection.  Patricia will guide students to interpret lines, shapes, shading, and textures of each object in the still-life displays.  Each session will feature new objects for the group to study.

The sessions are offered on Fridays, August 6th, September 10^th and October 1^st from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Estes Park Museum located at 200 Fourth Street.  Students may enroll in one, two or all three of the sessions.  The cost is $12 per session for non-members and $8 per session for members of the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc.  Registration is currently open for one or all three sessions.  To reserve a space, call the Estes Park Museum at (970)-577-3762 Monday through Friday, between 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Class participants should bring their own drawing pencils, colored pencils if you wish, a 9” by 12” sketch pad and erasers.  Class size for each session is limited to ten people ages twelve and over.  All skill levels are welcome as there will be plenty of time for personal instruction.  The objects will be different from those used for instruction last year.

Estes Park Museum Hosts Lecture and Gallery Tours by Kiyonori Kanasaka

July 13, 2010

The Estes Park Museum is thrilled to host Kyoto University professor, Kiyonori Kanasaka’s traveling exhibit entitled In the Footsteps of Isabella Bird: Adventures in Twin Time Travel.  In it, the geography professor brings his long-time interest in Isabella Bird’s world travels to the Museum in a dynamic photographic display.  After retracing her world journeys, Kanasaka compiled photographs of what the lands spanning the continents look like today juxtaposed with the written account from Bird.  Explore these incredible photographs bringing the words of Bird’s voyages alive and compare what has happened to her destinations well over a hundred years later.  Join the staff in celebration of the exhibit’s U.S. premier at the Estes Park Museum on Friday, July 16^th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.  Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be provided for this momentous occasion.

The public is also invited to attend a presentation by professor Kanasaka on Saturday, July 17^th at 2:00 p.m. when he describes the process of researching Bird’s writings, drawings, and photographs that document her travels across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, North America, Australia, and New Zealand in the late nineteenth century.  Bird, a Victorian traveler, is widely acclaimed for her detailed letters and sketches published in multiple books describing her travels.  In Bird’s A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, published in 1879, she makes the first deliberate account of a tourist’s experience in Estes Park and what would later become Rocky Mountain National Park. 

During his visit, Kanasaka will explain “twin time travel,” or the process of traveling to the exact places described by Bird over a hundred years later.  The combination of Kanasaka’s skilled photography, large maps, and select excerpts of Bird’s writings and illustrations makes for a powerful museum experience.

On Monday, July 19^th and Tuesday, July 20^th Kanasaka will lead gallery tours of the new exhibit.  Tours on both days meet in the Estes Park Museum and begin promptly at 2:00 p.m.  The presentation and tours are free and open to the public. 

Drawing from the Estes Park Museum Collection

July 13, 2010

The Estes Park Museum is offering for the second year in a row, a series of three drawing classes entitled “Drawing from the Estes Park Museum Collection.”  Taught by local artist Patricia Greenberg, students will develop drawing skills by studying historic objects from the Museum’s collection.  Patricia will guide students to interpret lines, shapes, shading, and textures of each object in the still-life displays.  Each session will feature new objects for the group to study.

The sessions are offered on Fridays, August 6th, September 10^th and October 1^st from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Estes Park Museum located at 200 Fourth Street.  Students may enroll in one, two or all three of the sessions.  The cost is $12 per session for non-members and $8 per session for members of the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc.  Registration is currently open for one or all three sessions.  To reserve a space, call the Estes Park Museum at (970)-577-3762 Monday through Friday, between 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Class participants should bring their own drawing pencils, colored pencils if you wish, a 9” by 12” sketch pad and erasers.  Class size for each session is limited to ten people ages twelve and over.  All skill levels are welcome as there will be plenty of time for personal instruction.  The objects will be different from those used for instruction last year.

Cheley Camp Tour Returns by Popular Demand

July 12, 2010

The Estes Park Museum, in conjunction with Cheley Camps, will offer a second tour this summer of Cheley Camp facilities along with a history of the organization on Tuesday July 20^th from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.  The tour is facilitated by the Museum and guided by Cheley Camp staff.  Reservations are required and can be made by calling the Museum at 970-586-6256. The tour is free for members of the Estes Park Museum Friends & Foundation, Inc. and $5 for non-members, payable by cash or check the day of the tour.     

This year marks the 90^th anniversary of the year that Frank Cheley founded Cheley Colorado Camps originally named Bear Lake Trail School at Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Just twenty-four campers attended that first year.  By 1926, the camp grew to accommodate sixty boys who swam in the frigid lake and ate meals at the Bear Lake Lodge.  By 1927, the camp outgrew the available space and the Cheley Colorado Camps moved to its present location off Fish Creek Road, where its legacy continues today.  A celebration of this 90^th year will be held over Labor Day weekend on the facilities.

Cheley now hosts more than 1,000 campers annually.  The camps are among the oldest in the country, and they have brought thousands of campers and their families to Estes Park over the years.  Join the Estes Park Museum and the staff of Cheley Colorado Camps to learn more about the camp and tour Cheley’s magnificent cabins and lodges featuring Rocky Mountain rustic architecture.  

Participants with large parties should carpool when possible as parking is limited.  Meet at the Ski Hi Lodge at Cheley Camp beginning at 9:45 a.m. on July 20^th.  To get to Cheley Camp travel about 4 miles south from Estes Park on Colorado Hwy 7.  Turn left onto Fish Creek Way.  Then go 0.2 mile and continue straight ahead onto the dirt road as Fish Creek Way curves to the left.  Follow the winding main road for 1.3 miles to the lodge.  Volunteers will direct you to parking.

Museum Hosts the U.S. Premier of In the Footsteps of Isabella Bird: Adventures in Twin Time Travel Exhibit, Lecture, and Gallery Tours.

July 12, 2010

The Estes Park Museum is thrilled to announce that it will host Kyoto University professor, Kiyonori Kanasaka’s traveling exhibit entitled Isabella Bird: Adventures in Twin Time Travel.  In it, the geography professor brings his long-time interest in Isabella Bird’s world travels to the Museum in a dynamic photographic display.  After retracing her world journeys, Kanasaka compiled photographs of what the lands spanning the continents look like today juxtaposed with the written account from Bird.  Explore these incredible photographs bringing the words of Bird’s voyages alive and compare what has happened to her destinations well over a hundred years later.  Join the staff in celebration of the exhibit’s U.S. premier at the Estes Park Museum on Friday, July 16 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.  Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be provided for this momentous occasion.

Professor Kanasaka of Kyoto University in Japan has shown his work in Edinburgh (2005, National Library of Scotland), Ripon (2008, Fountains Hall), Dundee(2008, University of Dundee), Tobermory (2009, An Tobar), Kyoto (2010, Kyoto University), Nara (2010, Nara Perfectural Library & Information Center), and London (2010, Royal Geographical Society).  After this Estes Park exhibition, his work will tour in Honolulu (2011, Hawaii State Library) and Shanghai (2011, Shanghai Normal University).  Kanasaka’s first show in the United States will be on display in the Estes Park Museum’s National Park Service Headquarters building from July 16, 2010 to January 16, 2011. The exhibit is designed for the enjoyment of all age groups.

The public is also invited to attend a presentation by professor Kanasaka on Saturday, July 17 at 2:00 p.m. when he describes the process of researching Bird’s writings, drawings, and photographs that document her travels across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, North America, and Oceana in the late nineteenth century.  Bird, a Victorian traveler is widely acclaimed for her detailed letters and sketches published in a multiple books describing her travels.  In Bird’s A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, published in 1879, she makes the first deliberate account of a tourist’s experience in Estes Park and what would later become Rocky Mountain National Park. 

During this rare visit by Kanasaka he will explain “twin time travel” or the process of traveling to the exact places described by Bird over a hundred years later.  His photographs reveal timeless qualities about the natural settings and people Bird encountered while some modern nuances are also present.  The combination of Kanasaka’s skilled photography, large maps, and select excerpts of Bird’s writing and illustrations makes for a powerful museum experience.

On Monday, July 19 and Tuesday, July 20 Kanasaka will make himself available for informal gallery tours of the new exhibit.  Tours on both days meet in the Estes Park Museum and begin promptly at 2:00 p.m.  The presentation and tours are free and open to the public.  You won’t want to miss these extraordinary events.  

Estes Park Museum and Historic Fall River Hydroplant closed on the Fourth and Fifth of July

June 30, 2010

The Estes Park Museum and the Historic Fall River Hydroplant will be closed on July fourth and fifth in recognition of Independence Day.  Both museums will reopen on Tuesday, July sixth.  The Estes Park Museum’s summer hours through the month of October, are Monday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.  Current exhibits at the Estes Park Museum include Artist-In-Residence II ending July third, featuring artwork celebrating Rocky Mountain National Park; and in the Main Gallery, The Stirling Legacy, an exhibit that delves into the artistic contributions of the father-son duo.  Admission is free.

The Historic Fall River Hydroplant, listed on the National Register, was built by F. O. Stanley to provide electricpower to the Stanley Hotel when it opened in 1909 and was the exclusive source of electricity for the Town of Estes Park until the 1940s.  Visit the Historic Hydroplant to learn the details of its fascinating story.  Located at 1754 Fish Hatchery Road, hours are 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. daily except Mondays.  Admission is free.  Private tours are available for a small fee by calling 970-577-3762. For more information, visit www.estes.org/hydroplant. 

Presentation by the Colorado Map Society

June 9, 2010

Visit the Estes Park Museum on Saturday, June 19^th for a rare presentation by the Colorado Map Society.  Dave Cole, President of the Society and Society members Jim Hensinger and Tom Overton will discuss the types of maps in their collections, demonstrate the evolution of counties in Colorado and the history of Estes Park as reflected in antique maps.  They will have unique maps on display as well.  The program begins at 2:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public. 

Dave Cole has been interested in antique maps for over twenty years.  His career at Hewlett Packard allowed him to live and work in Europe for ten years; five in Germany and five in Great Britain.  Cole maintains a keen love of history, art and antique maps. His collecting interest is eclectic; and contains maps of continents, countries, regions, states, city views, American development and the Holy Land.

Tom Overton began collecting maps while in school at the University of Tennessee thirty years ago.  His interests include antique maps of Colorado and Tennessee as well as maps produced by John Speed in the first atlas of the world. .  Overton is the primary author of the Atlas of Colorado Counties which provides a quick reference for dating antique Colorado maps.

May 3, 2010

Cherished for their artistic contributions, the father and son artistic duo Dave and Jack Stirling are remembered in a new exhibit entitled The Stirling Legacy at the Estes Park Museum.  Dave, a landscape painter and Jack an illustrator were deeply connected to the community of Estes Park and the promotion of the Town to its visitors.  Join staff for a free reception celebrating the exhibit’s debut on May 7^th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Estes Park Museum located at 200 Fourth Street.  Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be provided.

Dave Stirling first came to Estes Park in 1916 pursuing his dream to live and paint in a cabin nestled in the mountains.  He created and sold his numerous landscape paintings for more than fifty years, enriching the lives of the people around him.  His son Jack, born in 1925, followed suite making illustrations and writing poems for sale to individuals and local businesses.  The Stirlings worked and entertained visitors at the “Bugscuffle Ranch,”an art studio located off of Fall River Road near Horseshoe Park.  The Ranch was a place where folks could drop-in, look at and talk about artwork with the artists.

Both father and son were writers and served as unofficial spokesmen for the community when traveling outside of Estes Park.  Dave enjoyed a long, successful career; sadly Jack’s was cut short when he died abruptly due to heart complications at age twenty-nine.  Dave continued to be an important contributor in the artist community and would later sell the Buggscuffle Ranch to Rocky Mountain National Park in 1970 and passed away in 1971.

The new exhibit presents finished artworks, sketches, and personal possessions, some on display for the first time.  See Jack’s drawing desk, a dress Dave painted on directly for a young woman’s square dancing costume and much more.  The exhibit offers family activities that challenge the visitor to discover more about the creative process and personal characteristics of both men.  A journal invites you to recollect stories or impressions you may have of “The Stirling Boys.”  The exhibit will run through April 10, 2011.

Following Isabella: A Colorado Slideshow and Reading

April 14, 2010

In Colorado, a terrain completely unfamiliar to him, Author Robert Root searched for a way to get to know the setting where the English writer Isabella Bird set to document her travels.  Root used Bird’s A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, a book about her 1873 travels in the Colorado territory as a template for his own wanderings.  Root traveled the Front Range through canyons and up the mountains of Colorado, including Rocky Mountain National Park’s 14,000 foot Longs Peak.   Join the author at the Estes Park Museum as he shares his adventures on Saturday, April 17 at 2:00 p.m. for this free and enriching program.

As a 2004 Artist-in-Residence participant at Rocky Mountain National Park, Root lived in the William Allen White Cabin once lived in and now named after the early 20^th century editor and writer in Moraine Park.  It was through his residency that Root was allured to Bird’s account of the Rockies.  By going where Isabella Bird went, Root came to understand the effect of place on her and noted the changes it created in him.  This Saturday at the Museum, Root will present a slideshow of images out of history and out of his own experiences retracing Isabella Bird’s trek and read portions of Following Isabella: Travels in Colorado Then and Now, published in 2009.  This book is for sale at the Museum Shop where members receive a 10 percent discount.   

In addition to Following Isabella, Root is the author or editor of fifteen books.  He is a professor emeritus at Central Michigan University, a past faculty member at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, and currently a faculty member in the MFA Program at Ashland University in Ohio.  He is also the interviews editor for the nonfiction journal Fourth Genre.  Root has been a visiting writer at writers’ conferences and writing programs from Alaska to Switzerland and, as an essayist, an artist-in-residence at Isle Royale, Acadia, and Rocky Mountain National Parks.

This presentation compliments the Museum’s newest exhibit entitled Artist-In-Residence II that features works from Rocky Mountain National Park’s Artist-In-Residence program.  The exhibit explores the many facets of this successful program that the National Park has hosted every year since 1984.  Works on display include literature, paintings, sculptures, photography and music celebrating the holistic influence the National Park can have on the visitor.  Artists-In-Residence II will be in the National Park Service Building on the Estes Park Museum grounds now through July 3, 2010.

In July, the Museum will present a temporary exhibit entitled In the Footsteps of Isabella Bird: Adventures in Twin Time Travel a photographic display of places that Bird visited then and now.  Meet the photographer Kiyonori Kanasaka on opening night! Visit the exhibits page for more details. 

Artist-In-Residence Writer, Paul Miller Speaks at the Museum

April 6, 2010

Paul Miller presents stories of how Rocky Mountain National Park has influenced and redirected his life.  His readings, based on more than thirty years of exploring the Park, include personal narratives of climbing, hiking, and discovering diverse landscapes from river bottoms to the high peaks of the Rockies.   A cast of characters includes granite spires, rubble-strewn summits, forgotten drainages, hailstorms, hardy flora, and elk grazing under skies full of thunderheads.   Miller will present his work at the Estes Park Museum on Saturday, April 10 at 2:00 p.m.  This program is free and open to the public.

Paul Miller has been a Colorado resident for more than 30 years.  He earned bachelor and master degrees from Colorado State University and currently works for CSU as editor and writer for Colorado State Magazine.  His essays have appeared in publications including High Country News, Matter, Orion, and three books: Pulse of the River, the Sand Papers, and most recently, Going Green – a collection of essays by recyclers and sustainability advocates. 

He has been a community columnist for the Denver Post and received an award from the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities.  He recently won a grand prize from the Tallgrass Writers Guild, and in 2007, he was Artist-In-Residence at Rocky Mountain National Park.  Central to the talk on Saturday, is the historic and venerable William Allen White cabin in Moraine Park, where Miller spent two weeks out of a summer writing and listening to the landscape. 

This presentation compliments the Museum’s newest exhibit entitled Artist-In-Residence II that features works from Rocky Mountain National Park’s Artist-In-Residence program.  The exhibit explores the many facets of this successful program that the National Park has hosted every year since 1984.  Works on display include literature, paintings, sculptures, photography and music celebrating the holistic influence the National Park can have on the visitor.  Artists-In-Residence II will be in the National Park Service Building on the Estes Park Museum grounds now through July 3, 2010.

Museum will be closed April 4

April 1, 2010

The Estes Park Museum will be closed on Sunday April 4 for the Easter holiday.  The Museum will be resuming gallery hours on Saturday, April 8.

February 23, 2010

Celebrate Women’s History Month with a special historical reenactment at the Estes Park Museum on Saturday, March 6th at 2:00 p.m.  Linda Batlin will appear as Isabella Bird, a Victorian traveler widely acclaimed for her letters and sketches published during 1879 in A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. This book is considered to be the first deliberate account of a tourist experience in Estes Park and what would become Rocky Mountain National Park.  Doors open at 1:30 p.m. and the program is free and open to the public.

Linda Batlin is a storyteller and author from Boulder and serves as the Co-President of the Rocky Mountain Storytellers Guild.  Her living history presentations of important Coloradoan women are entertaining as she tells stories full of wisdom and mirth.  Batlin’s reenactments are educational and appropriate for all age groups.  The presentation will last approximately forty-five minutes, leaving time for a brief discussion about Bird’s life and adventures.  Bird’s book is currently for sale in the Museum Shop.

Edible Homestead a Kids and Families Program

January 27, 2010

Learn about the Homestead Act of 1862 signed by President Abraham Lincoln and see if you have what it takes to build a dwelling and raise crops out of pretzel logs, icing, graham crackers and much more! This program is designed for children ages five through ten years old and requires one parent or guardian to be present during the activity.  It will take place on Saturday, February 13^th at the Estes Park Museum on 200 Fourth Street.

Cost is $5 per child and can be paid for by visiting the Museum prior to the start of the program or by calling to sign-up.  Registration opens on Monday, February 1st.  Refunds will only be given if you cancel at least 24 hours before the program.  Program begins at 2:00 p.m. Call 970-577-3762.

January 19, 2010

Join oil painter Lanny Grant when he describes his approach to the challenges and joy of painting in the mountains on Saturday, January 30 at the Estes Park Museum.  Grant completed a two-week Artist-In-Residence program in Rocky Mountain National Park this past summer.  Paintings by Lanny Grant are included in numerous private and corporate collections.  In 2002, he created a painting of Mount of the Holy Cross commemorating the 1993 visit to Colorado by Pope John Paul II.  The painting is now part of the permanent art collection at the Vatican in Rome.  The State of Colorado acquired a Grant original of Vail Valley which now hangs in the Governor’s reception area at the State Capitol building in Denver.  Lanny Grant’s program at the Estes Park Museum begins at 2:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.  The Museum is located at 200 Fourth Street in Estes Park.

As a Colorado native, Grant developed his early love and respect for the mountains surrounding his father’s ranch near the small western slope town of Silt.  He spent his early life exploring the wonders of the high country.  Fishing trips that became sketching trips are fond memories of early artistic efforts by this plein-air painter.  Later he studied art history, painting, design, life drawing and sculpture at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado which helped give a solid foundation of the fundamentals on which to build, and made him eager to learn.

Always applying the fundamental principles, Grant has evolved his own techniques of translating impressions gathered from nature.  A compelling love for the changing moods of the mountains has drawn him into the high country of Colorado, Wyoming, and Canada to paint.  Often working in remote areas, he makes numerous sketches and oil color studies for use as reference in doing larger studio paintings.  Although he uses photographs of his subjects for additional reference, Grant feels that the spontaneity of composition and accuracy of color that result from painting on location is invaluable. 

The result of this dedicated work has been a fresh and accurate portrayal of the many moods and changing seasons in the Rockies.  The quality of light in the alpine country and clarity of color come through in Grants’ paintings, drawing the viewer into them to perhaps re-kindle a personal memory of the mountains.

Grant is a signature member of Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters and has participated in group shows and events since 2002.  He is also an associate member of Oil Painters of America.  A recent painting by Grant titled ‘Dream Lake’ was chosen as one of the ‘Top 100’ paintings in the ‘Paint America’ competition and will be included in a national tour.  He was selected as an Artist-In-Residence in Rocky Mountain National Park for two weeks during the summer of 2009.

This presentation compliments the Museum’s newest exhibit entitled Artist-In-Residence II that features works from Rocky Mountain National Park’s Artist-In-Residence program.  The exhibit explores the many facets of this successful program that the National Park has hosted every year since 1984.  Works on display include literature, paintings, sculptures, photography and music celebrating the holistic influence the National Park can have on the visitor.  The first exhibit of this kind took place in 2002 and 2003.  Artists-In-Residence II will be in the National Park Service Building on the Estes Park Museum grounds from January 29, 2010 through July 3, 2010.  Join us for light food and drinks from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on opening night!

January 19, 2010

Estes Park is revered for its natural beauty.  About 3 million people visit Rocky Mountain National Park every year just to see our incredible landscape and quickly become enamored with it.  The same sentiment is felt more deeply by the numerous artists who visit or reside here trying to capture the alluring beauty.  Come see how a number of artists represent Rocky Mountain National Park in the new exhibit at the Estes Park Museum called Artist-In-Residence II.

Join us for a free reception celebrating the exhibit’s opening on Friday January 29, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Estes Park Museum located at 200 Fourth Street.  There will be drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and live music performed by keyboardist Cynthia Hoyle. 

Elements from the visual arts, literary arts, and music are celebrated and interpreted as the Museum shows selected pieces from the Rocky Mountain National Park’s Artist-In-Residence program.  The first exhibit of this kind took place at the Estes Park Museum in 2002 and 2003.  This collaborative exhibit can be seen in the Museum’s historic 1915 National Park Service headquarters building on the Museum’s grounds from January 29th through July 3, 2010. 

The Artist-In-Residence Program at Rocky Mountain National Park offers professional writers, composers, and visual and performing artists the opportunity to pursue their artistic discipline while immersed in the inspirational setting of the National Park.  Artists selected for the program stay in the historic William Allen White cabin, located in Moraine Park, for two-week periods from June through September.  In return, participants donate an original piece of artwork to the Park representative of their time spent in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The finished artwork characterizes Rocky Mountain National Park for present and future generations of visitors to admire.  The Artist-In-Residence program also ensures the preservation of the William Allen White Cabin which was built in 1887.  William Allen White, a famous American editor and author, and his family spent thirty-one summers in his cabin amidst the spectacular views of Moraine Park and the Rocky Mountains.   His summer home was designated to host the artists in 1984 at the start of the competitive program. 

Discover more about the experiences of being an Artist-In-Residence, the history of the William Allen White Cabin, and view numerous selected works created since the program’s beginning.  Pieces on display include literature, paintings, sculptures, photography and music – all celebrating the holistic influence the National Park can have on the visitor.  The exhibit offers family activities and tools for people of all ages to view, listen to, and learn about how artists approach their work and to observe the different ways to interpret their experiences in Rocky Mountain National Park. 

In addition to the Artist-In Residence II exhibit, several programs throughout the year will be presented by participants of the program.  On January 30th oil painter, Lanny Grant, will describe what it was like to paint the mountainous scenes outdoors.   On April 10^th, Artist-In-Residence writer, Paul Miller will read from his works created in Rocky Mountain National Park and describe what it was like live and work in the William Allen Cabin.  On April 17, Robert Root, author of Following Isabella: Travels in Colorado Then and Now, will speak about his quest to research the extraordinary world traveler, Isabella Bird who stayed in Estes Park in the late 1800s.  All three programs begin at 2:00 p.m. and will be held in the Main Building of the Museum.