November 19th Zion National Park turns 105!

Peter’s first trip to Zion National Park was in 1982. He did two paintings. One was titled Great Arch (18x28), a watercolor and gouache on paper and the other was of the landmark formation The Great White Throne. This painting measured 40x60 and was a watercolor/ acrylic/gesso on paper. Over the course of his 50 year career he would return to Zion numerous times.

Artist Maynard Dixon’s first trip to the Southwest was in 1900. This would be the beginning of his lifelong interest of “roaming around” this region. In 1933 Dixon (1875-1946) and his 2nd wife, photographer Dorothea Lange, along with their two children, spent the summer in Zion National Park. I read that Dixon was not a fan of the over romanticized paintings of the Southwest by such famous artists as Moran, Inness and Bierstadt. Dixon referred to his paintings as “honest art of the west.” During his stay at Zion he would produce over 40 paintings. After looking online at many of Dixon’s paintings from Zion I can see that he and Peter chose many of the same rock formations to paint like the Great White Throne, Angel’s Landing and The Sisters.

In 1939 Dixon and his 3rd wife, artist Edith Hamlin, would build a home in Mount Carmel, Utah just 17 miles from Zion. In 1999 the house and property would be acquired by the Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts, a non-profit organization. Their mission is to preserve Dixon’s home and property and educate the public on his career. The Maynard Dixon Legacy Museum is also on the property.

Zion, like most national parks in the USA, has an Artist – In Residence program. Dancers, musicians, photographers, painters, sculptors, weavers/ tapestry/ fabric artists along with visual artists from the USA can apply. Three artists per year are chosen for these one month residencies which take place in April, June and October. The artists are required to do 2 public presentations, mingle with park visitors and donate an original work of art to the parks museum permanent collection, interpretive collection or the parks partnership program which supports the residency program. I have viewed the artwork in this collection online and it is quite impressive! You can tell that these artists truly immersed themselves in the beauty and spirit of the place.

Pat Weaver on Peter Holbrook and Yosemite

Mirror Lake is a seasonal pool of water on Tenaya Creek in Yosemite National Park. It is located at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley between North Dome and Half Dome. I read that Mirror Lake was once part of a large glacial lake that filled Yosemite Valley at the end of the Ice Age. However recent studies show that it was formed more recently when 11.4 million cubic feet of rock came down in an avalanche caused by an earthquake.

The Ahwahnechee Native American tribe called the lake “quiet waters.” When early settlers moved in they turned Mirror Lake into a tourist attraction with cabins, a boathouse and a dance hall. They gave it the name Mirror Lake due to the fact that they could see Half Dome and Mt. Watkins reflected on the lake's surface. In 1864 President Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant to protect the area from logging, mining and over development.

Mirror Lake gets its water from Tenaya (Creek) Canyon snow melt. By 1884 sediment started to settle in and reduce its size. A dam of a few large granite boulders were placed into the narrowest points but this did little to reduce the silt problem. In 1886 another dam was built on Tenaya Creek above the lake. All this did was allow the sediment to back up farther upstream. The lake has been dredged many times, the last being in 1971. Today it is only full in early spring. By late summer it has been reduced to some small ponds surrounded by sand and tall grass. The park service has decided to let the sediment reclaim the lake and return it to a natural meadow.

With the invention of the camera in 1816 we are now able to look back and see photographic images of what Yosemite looked like before it became a national park. Taking photographs in a wilderness setting was not an easy task back then. It required mules to carry food, personal items, camping equipment, cameras, photo chemicals and glass for albumen plates to the location. Some of the early photographers were Carleton E. Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, George Fiske, Charles L. Weed and Charles Roscoe Savage.

Carleton E. Watkins was a photographer for the California State Geological Survey. His photos were recognized for their artistic composition. He also created many advancements in darkroom photo development techniques. Mt. Watkins, which is reflected in Mirror Lake, was named in his honor. Charles L. Weed first traveled to Yosemite in 1859. Many of his photographs were used to promote tourism. Weed’s albumen silver photographic print (1865) titled Mirror Lake and Reflections, Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County, California along with Charles Roscoe Savage’s 1888 print titled Mirror Lake, Yosemite Valley, California are both in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. In 1879 George Fiske became the first photographer to reside in the park year round. A young Ansel Adams admired his work and is quoted as saying “he has the better eye.” Unfortunately in 1904 three quarters of Fiske’s glass plate negatives and photo equipment were lost in a fire. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has 18 of his photographs in their collection.

Holbrook artwork of Yosemite National Park that is available for sale:

Mirror Lake with Cirrus 1994 40x27 oil/acrylic on paper unframed

Under Yosemite Falls 2013 32x23 oil on canvas framed

Royal Arches and Half Dome 2013 40x50 oil on canvas framed

Tenaya Creek 1995 lithograph # 6/7 27x18 Black ink lithograph hand colored unframed.

Sentinel 1995 27x18 oil/ acrylic on paper unframed

Boulders Like Boxcars 1991 40x27 oil/acrylic on paper unframed

See PeterHolbrook.net for all the images.

Peter Holbrook: Small Works: May 25- July, 7, 2024 The Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, California

In 1878, under the California Rogers Free Library Act, incorporated towns and cities in California could levy a tax on property to finance a public library. Eureka became the first city in California to support a free public library with these public funds. In 1901 the town also received a $20,000 Carnegie Library Grant for the library building construction. Local architects Knowles Evans and B.C. Tarver would design the building using local red brick and Mad River granite. The style of the building would be Classic Revival which uses elements that echoed previous architectural eras like Greek or Roman. The building also features two-story tall Corinthian columns and a terracotta Roman arch. Inside are mosaic floors and solid redwood columns. This, along with the building’s original condition, helped it to be added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

In 1996 the old Carnegie Library building was due to be demolished. The Humboldt Arts Council purchased the building for $1 and started to raise money for its remodel. HAC named the new art museum after local artist Morris Graves. Graves donated 100 works from his private collection to the museum.

Starting this month, May 25th to July 7th, the museum will host a show of Peter’s paintings titled Peter Holbrook: Small Works in the Knights Gallery top floor mezzanine. The show’s opening reception will be on June 1st from 6-9 PM during the town’s Arts Alive (art walk) monthly celebration. The show will consist of 29 paintings, all for sale, and will be the second one person show of Peter’s work at the museum.

Clouds

Peter Holbrook had a friend who lived in Mount Shasta, California. She had hundreds of pictures of the clouds that passed over the mountain. To her they looked like UFO saucer shaped spaceships. Back in 2014 Peter did a small painting from our back yard titled UFO’s in the Meadow. The painting shows a series of odd shaped clouds. Did Peter think these clouds were UFO’s? No, but sometimes he just needed to have a little fun with his painting titles.

Many times Peter would take photos of just the clouds. “The sky is where I take my liberties. I enjoy imagining a wide range of atmospheric conditions.” If a painting needed some drama or relief he could always insert some clouds.

Art history shows us that there are endless ways to interpret clouds in paintings. They appear in a stormy sky over land, a rough sea or reflected in a calm pond. They can add visual interest to a desert landscape or drama to a mountain top covered in snow. At the age of 73, Georgia O’Keeffe started a series of cloud paintings (1960-1977) from her observations of them while looking out an airplane window from an altitude of 3,000 feet. This, along with her airplane travels around the world, inspired her to do a series of 11 cloudscape paintings. One of the most recognized paintings from this series was titled Sky Above Clouds IV, which was painted in 1965. The painting is 8 feet high and twenty-four feet in length. In this painting the clouds are cylindrical. To me they look like floating bed pillows. The visible horizon and the blue sky between the cloud shapes gives the painting perspective. This painting is now in the permanent collection at the Art Institute of Chicago. See link below.

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/100858/sky-above-clouds-iv

We will leave you with a Henry David Thoreau quote from 1859: “This winter they are cutting down our woods more seriously than ever…. Thank God, they cannot cut down the clouds.”

Peter Holbrook in Costa Rica, January 1981.

Back in January of 1981 Peter and his young family traveled to Costa Rica. The plan was to stay near the capitol of San Jose and make side trips. Within a few days of arrival those plans fell apart. They ended up deciding then to hit the road by traveling west. One problem though, Costa Rica was having a gas shortage. What that meant was you could rent a car but unfortunately not buy gas to put in it. They ended up taking a train west to the town of Puntarenas. After spending the night and asking a lot of questions they ended up taking a ferry to Playa Naranjo where they found a newly opened resort. After a week of sun and relaxation (minus the sand flea riddled beach) they were ready for some adventure.

Holbrook had heard about the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve high in the central mountains. He and his family boarded a bus in Puntarenas that would take them to the town of Monteverde. The bus was packed with local residents, most of which appeared to be farmers. They were the only tourists on board. The men stood as the available seats were given to women with children on their laps. The bus climbed 2,660 feet in elevation as we passed by lush green rolling hillsides with wide open vistas. Arriving later in the day they checked into a local hotel. Early the next morning they set out to walk through the cloud forest. It rains in the cloud forest at least 362 days out of the year.

The Monteverde Cloud Forest is a unique ecosystem. Its dense wet forest is home to 100 species of mammals (58 species are bats), 400 species of birds, 1,200 amphibians, insects and reptiles and 2,500 species of flora, 420 of which are orchids. Even though we did not see any wildlife, or other hikers for that matter along the trail, we could hear the sounds of exotic birds everywhere. The forest was covered in thick vegetation and flowers which provided much needed cover for any fauna that wanted to stay hidden.

The cloud forest today is very different than it was in 1981. The 362 days of rain in the forest has now been reduced to 262. Since the late 1980’s 20 of the 50 species of frogs and toads have disappeared. Climate change is bringing higher temperatures to the region along with lower humidity. Clouds that once hung over the forest now pass it by. This allows more sunlight to pass through the forest canopy which is drying out the once wet and humid forest floor. Warmer seas are causing the trade winds to diminish. Warmer temperatures cause pathogens to thrive at high altitudes than ever before thus killing off many species.

After a week in Monteverde it was time to head back to the capital of San Jose. From there the Holbrooks took a side trip to see the Poas volcano crater. This would be the only subject matter that Peter would paint from this trip. Without a rental car they never made it to the ocean and the cloud forest was too dense, dark and wet to really photograph properly. Peter did take lots of photos of the rolling hills on the way to Monteverde but they were never used as references for any paintings.

Lithographs and Peter Holbrook

The Great Depression of the 1930’s left 12 million US citizens unemployed. FDR’s New Deal created the Works Project Administration or WPA in 1935. A few months after the WPA was created the The Federal Arts Project (FAP) was established. The Federal Arts Project would employ sculptors, photographers, painters and graphic design artists (including silkscreen and lithography), muralists, writers, actors and musicians to produce works of art for public buildings like community centers, libraries and hospitals. 2,566 murals were created along with 100,000 easel paintings, 300,000 fine art prints and 18,000 sculptures. The total government investment came to $35,000,000. Many of the works of art that were created during this period were labeled Social Realism because they depicted the social, racial and economic struggles of the times.

Dorothea Lange, who was the wife of painter Maynard Dixon, was hired by The Farm Security Administration in 1937 as a field photographer. Lange’s assignment was to document the negative effects of the depression on sharecroppers, poor rural homesteaders and migrant workers. Lange never wanted her photographs to be classified as art. She saw them as a documentation to enact social awareness and change and to bring to light the conditions that were causing human suffering.

From 1934-1943 the WPA Poster Program was in full swing. Under the supervision of the visual arts section of the FAP, the posters were printed and designed by unemployed artists. These posters (lithographs and silkscreens) were used to bring about public awareness of community events and meetings, public health issues, social services, travel, theater and education. 2 million posters were printed from 35,000 designs. Today only 2,000 posters are known to exist and 900 of them are stored in the Library of Congress. As part of this program the Department of the Interior National Parks Service created a Poster Program in 1938. A combined 13 national parks and monuments were chosen to be represented by a poster. The intention was to bring awareness to these parks and to encourage citizens to travel and visit them. The 13 chosen were Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, Fort Marion, Zion, Lassen, Wind Cave, Great Smoky Mountains, Glacier and Bandelier. One poster would advertise the National Park Service bringing the count to 14. Approximately 1,400 posters were printed and were sold to the public for 12 cents a piece. Today only 42 original prints have been found and 5 are in the Library of Congress.

Over the course of Peter’s art career he had the opportunity to work with a few lithography studios. In 1977 he worked with New Leaf Press, which was operated by the A.D.I Gallery in San Francisco, CA. He produced two editions of 4 color lithographs, of which 2 prints are currently in the Brooklyn Art Museum’s permanent collection. The head printer, David Salgado, would then leave New Leaf and start his own business Trillium Graphics. Peter would go on to produce a few more lithographs with Trillium, including the 1991 lithograph titled Sumner Butte (Grand Canyon). We have few of these available for sale. You find an image of Sumner Butte by perusing our IG site linked on the “About'“ page. If you are interested we are offering them for $500 a piece, unframed. The price includes shipping anywhere in the USA. This lithograph is in the permanent collection at the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri, The Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas, The Tucson Art Museum and the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.

In 1994 Peter, and a group of local artists, pooled their money together and bought their own lithography press. The press, a Dickinson Combination Press, was about 6 feet long and weighed about a half a ton. It had to be delivered on a flatbed truck. Peter experimented with pulling black and white lithography prints which he would then hand color with oil paint or pastel crayon. The subject matter of these lithographs was female nudes and some landscapes. We have a few of these available for sale too if anyone is interested and would like to see pictures feel free to contact us.

Peter Holbrook's mountain paintings- some thoughts.

“The mountains are calling and I must go” is a famous quote by Naturalist John Muir.

Paintings of mountains, either as a focal point or in the background, is not new to landscape art. All of the great masters, such as Thomas Moran, Frederic Church, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, John Singer Sargent, Katsushika Hakusa and Albert Bierstadt painted them. In fact Bierstadt had a mountain named after him in Colorado. Mount Bierstadt (14,065 feet) is a mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains about 43 miles west by south of the city of Denver. In 1863 Bierstadt made it to the summit and was the first to record its data. Initially Bierstadt had named the mountain Mount Rosalie after a woman named Rosalie Osborne Ludlow, who would later become his wife. But in 1914 the mountain was renamed Mount Bierstadt in honor of the western landscape painter.

Over the course of Peter’s career he did many paintings of mountains. In 2010 Peter did two paintings, a study and a larger version, of Nagunt Mesa and Timber Top. In the study you can see the rich deep red color of the Navajo Sandstone offset by the lush green foreground foliage. The dark foreboding clouds add to the drama. Nagunt Mesa is a 7,785 foot mountain summit located in the Kolob Canyon area of Zion National Park in Utah. The Paiute word nagunt means bighorn sheep. Located just 1.3 miles to the south of Nagunt Mesa is Timber Top Mountain. Timber Top is the second highest peak (8,055 feet) in the park. The Timber Top Overlook Trail, which is only a 30 minute, 1 mile round trip walk, leads to a spectacular 360 degree view of Kolob Canyon.

Approximately 57 miles to the NE of Nagunt Mesa is Brian Head Peak. Peter did two paintings of Brian Head. Aside from the icy snow Peter chose to use the clouds, which could shroud and obscure the mountain peak at any time, as a source of mood and interest. Brian Head Peak is 11,307 feet tall and lies on the west side of the Markagunt Plateau which is located in the Dixie National Forest in Utah. Brian Head was originally known as Monument Peak and Bear Flats. No one is really sure how Brian Head got its name but there are a few theories. One is that it was named after 3 time Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan. Another theory is that John Wesley Powell named it after an official in the Geographic Survey Office whose name was Bryan. What we do know is that the mountain was a point of reference by early surveyors and expedition leaders. The name Brian means high or noble. It is related to the Celtic root brixs meaning hill or high or the old Irish word briig which means might or power.

Rock-Slide Slide Rock/Holbrook in Sedona Arizona

Slide Rock State Park is located in Oak Creek Canyon, 7 miles north of Sedona. It was originally the Frank Pendley Homestead which he acquired through the Homestead Act in 1910. In 1912 Pendley developed a unique water irrigation system and planted a large apple orchard and vegetable garden on his 43 acre property. By 1933 the family had built cabins and opened the farm to tourists. His descendants continued to manage the property for the next 70 years. In 1982 the family decided to sell the property. When current Arizona Governor Babbitt heard about this he created The Arizona Parkland Foundation. The foundation would be a non-profit corporation that would acquire (purchase) and receive gifts of land that would be donated to the Arizona State Parks agency. The foundation was able to secure a loan for $3,600,000 but unfortunately fundraising and private donations to pay back the loan were not meeting expectations. In 1985 Arizona House Bill 2391 introduced a State Park Acquisition and Development Fund that would acquire the Pendley Homestead along with Orade Site, Davis Camp, Hualapai House, Yuma Crossing and Picket Post House. This bill met with some opposition but on July 9, 1985 the Pendley Homestead was purchased by Arizona State Parks from the State Park Foundation. In October of 1987 the 43 acre parcel became an official Arizona State Park.

Peter first visited Sedona in 1978. The rich crimson red (iron oxide) color in the rock formations is incredible, unlike any other color experienced in nature. Over the course of Peter’s art career his work has been represented in both Sedona and Scottsdale. There is only 1 painting remaining of the Sedona area and that is a painting from Slide Rock State Park. The painting's title is Rock Slide- Slide Rock. The rock slide in the title may be in reference to the large boulders in Oak Creek and on its banks. It may also refer to the 80 foot long, 4 foot wide natural water slide which is created by the fast moving current over the large boulders. It is quite a tourist attraction. I hear the creek water is 43 degrees even in the summer!

Rock Slide-Slide Rock is currently available at the Marshall Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ.

St. Vrain Rapids

While traveling around Colorado in 2014 Peter stopped in at St. Vrain State Park. The park consists of 604 acre of park land and 232 acres of water that is split among many ponds. It was formerly known as Barbour Ponds and is located in Firestone near Longmont. St. Vrain Creek, known locally as the St. Vrain River, is a tributary of the South Platte River in north central Colorado. The creek flows out of a canyon through the Rocky Mountain Foothills and then along the north side of the park. It is approximately 32 miles long and attracts birds like the white pelican, blue heron, osprey, bald eagles and egrets. The ponds contain yellow perch, northern pike, rainbow trout and catfish. The park’s wildlife includes whitetail deer, gray wolves, long-eared owls, bobcats, red fox, mink and black-tailed prairie dogs. There are many campgrounds and hiking trails in the park.

The creek and park were named after Ceran de Hault de Lassus de Saint Vrain, the son of a French aristocrat who immigrated to the USA in the late 1700’s. Ceran St Vrain (1802-1870) was born near St. Louis, Missouri. In 1824 he set off from Missouri on a trading expedition heading to what is now Taos, New Mexico.

In 1831 he became a naturalized Mexican citizen. This gave him the ability to open a number of trading posts. In 1830, with his business partner William Bent, they formed Bent- St. Vrain Company. By 1833 they opened the trading post Fort William in (Pueblo, CO), Bent’s Fort (La Junta, CO) and Fort Saint Vrain (1837) along the South Platte River. Bent and St.Vrain made many trips to Santa Fe, New Mexico to bring back glass, hardware and tobacco to trade for furs.

By 1843 he had met Cornelius Vigil and the two petitioned and received a land grant for approximately 4 million acres located in Southeastern, Colorado. The land was reduced to 97,000 after the Mexican-American War. It was Ceran St.Vrain’s contribution to the United States Army during the war that helped to secure his name in the history of the American West. In 1848 New Mexico territory was annexed to the US government.

St.Vrain settled in the Mora Valley in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Here he owned and operated a saw and flour mill that provided provisions for the US Army at Fort Union and Fort Garland in Southwestern Colorado.

There is a vast amount of historical information available on the internet about the Southwest in the 1800’s and Ceran St.Vrain’s life if you’d like to know more.

Peter did two paintings from St. Vrain State Park. Both paintings are available for sale. Feel free to inquire.

In St.Vrain Canyon 2014 19.5 x13 oil on paper framed

St.Vrain Rapids 2014 12x18 oil on paper framed

Peter Holbrook and Yellowstone

Back in August of 1987 Peter was invited to teach a watercolor workshop at the Sun Valley Art Center in Idaho. So we packed up the car, kids in tow, and headed up to this beautiful area of the country. After the workshop we took a few side trips to Glacier National Park, Livingston Montana and ended up dropping in at Yellowstone National Park. In our usual mode of travel we had no reservations. Just as we were asking for a cabin to rent a reservation cancellation had just come in. We quickly unloaded our stuff in the cabin and headed out to see Old Faithful erupt.

The next morning Peter was up at 6 AM and wandered off with his camera. Hours passed and still there was no sign of his return. When he did finally appear around 9 AM he had a whopper of a story to tell. In his own words he wrote “I was headed back to camp on the paved park service road when I noticed the herd of bison angling toward me. Trying to stay calm and moving slowly I got the first shots (photographs) -a crowd of bulls, cows and calves. As I turned to proceed a big bull (presumably the alpha male) parked himself directly in my path, as if to say, ‘Hold it right there and nobody gets hurt’. Soon the herd was ambling past me on both sides. Not knowing what might spook them, I avoided closeups photos. When all were across the service road the big bull moved on too, much to my relief. From a wild animal it was an exhilarating display of paternal diplomacy.”

Out of this encounter came the painting Gradually I was Surrounded. This painting would eventually make it into a show titled “Collective Stories.” After Peter passed away I donated this painting to the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper, Wyoming. See jpeg attached.

At one time 60 million bison lived in North America. They roamed from New York to California and from southern Canada to northern Mexico. In the 1600’s French trappers saw these large animals and called them “boeuf” meaning buffalo. However these creatures were not buffalo (water buffalo) like the Asian and African animals, but North American bison. The two species are not related.

By the mid 1800’s the number of American bison were shrinking rapidly. The US government and early settlers carried out this eradication purposefully to destroy the ecosystem and food source of Native American cultures. In 1890 only 1,000 bison remained. With this statistic weighing heavily on the conscience of many US citizens a conservation effort was started. By 1920 the numbers had risen to 12,000. By the year 2022 more than 400,000 bison have been restored to public, private and Native American lands.

We have couple Yellowstone still available. There are not posted here, but please feel free to inquire.

“Upper Geyser Basin” 2014 23x32 oil on canvas framed Holbrook Studio

“Study for Mammoth Hot Springs” 1980 22x16 watercolor/acrylic on paper unframed Holbrook Studio

Peter Holbrook's Bryce Canyon Paintings

Here is an interesting fact about Bryce. Did you know that Bryce is not technically a canyon? A canyon is formed from the top down by water erosion along a central channel of a stream. Bryce is an amphitheater which was formed from the bottom up through what is known as headwater erosion. Headwater erosion is the process that lengthens a stream, valley or gully at its head or starting point source. The stream erodes away the rock and soil at the headwaters in the opposite direction that it flows. In this case it’s the eroding, receding edge of the Pausaugunt Plateau.

Now that we got the geology lesson out of the way I will once again allow Peter’s own words to speak about his views on art and the motivation behind some of his paintings.

About the Silent City area of Bryce Peter wrote:

“Bryce is unusually high (8,000 feet) and therefore young geologically. But its softer sandstone has eroded relatively fast, creating the millions of ‘hoodoos’ for which it is best known. As these are worn away, the harder strata which have a more cemented composition form narrow ledges which make them resemble ziggurats. This form is heightened when snow is captured by these narrow horizontal surfaces, and plays off against the bright reds and yellows of iron oxide.” ( see Morning at Silent City)

“I have always admired the great realists. There’s a basic visual magic in the ability of pigment to credibly translate our three dimensional world to the flat, two dimensional world of paper and canvas. A good painter allows us to momentarily enter another’s consciousness and implies dimensions beyond what is normally seen. It makes painting a spiritual exercise, requiring imagination to create credibility.” Peter Holbrook Southwest Art Magazine from 2010

Over the course of Peter’s career I have calculated, by looking into his painting records, that he did approximately 60 paintings of Bryce. The first being in 1982, was watercolor and gouache on paper. In 1990 he would switch from watercolor to oil/ acrylic on paper. Around 1995 he was painting strictly with oil paint on either paper or canvas.

The paintings listed below are still available for sale. Feel free to check out our Instagram for additional images of these works (@peter_holbrook_paintings).

Available through the galleries:

Last Light- Bryce Amphitheater 2015 23x32 oil on canvas ( Marshall Gallery Scottsdale AZ)

Day and Night in the Queen’s Garden 2011 40x60 oil on canvas ( Marshall Gallery Scottsdale AZ)

Dixie NF from Yovimpa Point 2015 55x40 oil on canvas ( Calabi Gallery Santa Rosa CA)

Available through Holbrook Studio:

Morning in Silent City 2004 27x40 oil on canvas

Sunset Point- Morning Study 2009 10x14 oil on paper

Inspiration Point Sketch 2012 15x12 oil on paper

From Rainbow Point 2008/13 21x29 oil on canvas

Night and Day in the Queen’s Garden 2012 40x30 oil on canvas

Ponderosa Point 2011 35.5x58.5 oil on canvas

Blue Ridge Under Fairview Point 2011 40x30 oil on canvas

Hoodoo Maze- Bryce Point 2011 44x70 Oil on Canvas

Evening Whitecaps- Bryce Amphitheater 2011 40x60 oil on Canvas

Yovimpa 2011 44x47 oil on canvas

Below Yovimpa 2011 44x70 oil on canvas

Peter Holbrook on his approach to painting.

This is the artist statement that Peter Holbrook wrote for his show at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka California in August of 2012.

My first solo exhibition was in college at the age of 20 in 1960. Now at 72 I have been showing and selling my artwork for over 50 years. Apart from some Expressionist detours in my art school years I have always been a Realist. I have learned my craft through fine teachers and associate professors, but am basically self-taught. Most of my work has taken landscape as its subject and over the past 40 years, principally the Southwestern landscape-the Canyonlands. Beginning in the mid 1960’s I began to explore the use of photography for generating imagery. This placed me among the early Photo realists. But my approach was different from the more famous practitioners. Their subjects were urban, mine were wilderness, their surfaces were smooth and photographic, mine were painterly-with broken color and visible brush strokes. Although I was having a successful career in Chicago by 1970, I was an art world misfit.

Times have certainly changed. Landscape painting has gone from the least popular subject to being perhaps the most popular. I think this was due to a general revolution in consciousness afoot in the late 60’s. Rachel Carson (Silent Spring) had initiated the Ecology movement. The Sierra Club was winning the early battles to preserve the wilderness and recognize its spiritual values. Modern geology, with its new carbon dating techniques and discovery of plate tectonics gave us a new mental picture of the age and formation of the land. The Park System was rapidly expanding under the demand for the wilderness experience. Stuart Brand with his Whole Earth Catalog was educating a new generation of homesteaders. And NASA was showing us what our planet looked like from space- beautiful but somehow fragile. That was the world view and the mind set that brought me to Northern California in 1970. My generation of landscape painters have rejected most of the notable American landscape traditions; The Transcendentalism of Church, Bierstadt and Moran, The Romanticism of Inness and the Tonalists, and the mythologies of Manifest Destiny-The Cowboys and Indians and Cavalry of Remington and Russell. We don’t paint the land as a background to man’s endeavors but find meaning in the land itself. We are formed by abstractions, but trying to overcome its dead ends, trendiness, and above all rejection of nature as the source of understanding and inspiration.

I agree with Ken Burns that the National Parks were “the greatest idea America ever had.”Most of my work comes out of the parks. Many of these subjects are from The Grand Canyon, Zion, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Monument Valley. If the formations are not familiar it is because I worked through the most popular views and “vistas” years ago. Now I concentrate more closely on the details in an effort to continually find a fresh point of view that characterizes the location. Most of my field photography is done very early or very late in the day when the effects of natural light are most dramatic. Though each painting takes its design from one or several photographs, I am not copying the photographs, but rather editing and manipulating them to reveal the special qualities of the place and time. I think of each usable image as a “light event”- which passes in a moment with changing angles of illumination and weather conditions. This seems appropriate to subjects that reveal their story on a geological time scale. I invite the viewer to step out of normal time for a moment.

Be sure to check out Peter Holbrook’s work at these galleries as well as what is available through this website:

https://themarshallgallery.com/artist/peter-holbrook

https://www.winfieldgallery.com/artists/peter-holbrook

https://calabigallery.com/artists/peter-holbrook/

Pat Weaver on exploring Monument Valley with Peter Holbrook

Exploring the Southwest in the early 1980’s was one of the best experiences of my life. Everywhere you turned was a visual wonder. Peter’s parents had moved to Arizona in the late 1960’s. Not only did this give us the opportunity to visit family but also to explore places like Canyon de Chelly, Arches, Zion, Bryce, The Grand Canyon and Monument Valley to name a few.

While doing research on Monument Valley I came across a very thorough and fascinating article on the early history of the area. The article was written by Tony Perrotte for the Smithsonian Magazine in February of 2010. The article covers The Mexican- American War, the annexation of the area from Mexican control, Kit Carson and the “Long Walk” to Anglo and Native rights going back and forth for decades. The article also describes how a dispute in 1958 prompted the Navajo Nation Council Advisory Committee to pass a resolution to allocate 92,000 acres of tribal lands to create Monument Valley Tribal Park and open it to the public. Google it.  It is well worth reading.

Peter and I and our 7 month old daughter visited the park for the 1st time in April of 1981. The entrance to the park is in Utah but the most recognized formations are in Arizona. We paid the park fee (today it is $20) and drove our pickup truck around the 17 mile loop. Along the 17 mile Loop Road is many of the well recognized formations such as The Mittens, Elephant Butte, The Three Sisters, Camel Butte, Artists Point, The Thumb, Totem Pole, Yei Bi Chai, Spearhead Mesa and Rain God Mesa. Looking into Peter’s painting archives I see at least 35 paintings from just this section of the park. I counted 10 paintings with the title Monument Valley( I-X) and 9 paintings (IX) titled Rain God Mesa.

What Peter was after in his paintings was not the recognizable rock formation but more the intricate structure of the formation itself. In an interview with Focus/Santa Fe magazine from August of 1999 Peter is quoted as saying “I’m looking for those abstract elements when I’m walking around with my camera. I’m not looking for the postcard vista view- point. I’m looking for patterns, more than anything else, and intense color when I can find it. Patterns can be abstract and often repeated: for example, reflections in clouds can be the same shape as a small piece of land, with the same kind of structure and fracturing as larger pieces. I realize these patterns are valuable in making a painting- it’s the repetition of form and movement.” These abstract patterns can be seen in his paintings of Rain God Mesa and Camel Butte.

Peter Holbrook Art at the Winfield Gallery in Carmel-by-the Sea

We are pleased to announce that the artwork of Peter Holbrook is being represented by the Winfield Gallery in Carmel-by-the-Sea California. Please see the link below to view Peter's page on the galleries website which is listed under collections.

https://www.winfieldgallery.com/artists/peter-holbrook

Winfield Gallery in Carmel now showing Holbrook paintings

The Winfield Gallery in Carmel-by-the-Sea is now showing four Holbrook paintings: Spearhead Mesa - West End, Sundown at Angel’s Gate, Tree Shadows on Chimney and Tanner Canyon. Check it out! https://www.winfieldgallery.com

The Grand Canyon trip that started it all.

Back in 1982 artists Merrill and Jeanne Mahaffey invited 30 fellow artists to join them on a 10 day raft trip down the Colorado River. The 200 mile trip was known as R.A.F.T “The 1982 Recessions Artists Float Trip.” Ted Hatch River Expeditions rafting company was chosen for the excursion. The starting point would be Lee’s Ferry and the take out point would be below Lava Falls.

Even though painters made up the majority of the artists selected, poets, writers, jewelry makers, sculptors, ceramicists and photographers were also represented. To get to Arizona Peter would fly with fellow artist Woody Payne (who also happened to be the pilot) Wilma Parker and Jean-Michel Addor. Along the way Peter was able to photograph Lake Powell and Glen Canyon from the air. Once on the river it is hard to say just how many roles of film Peter shot. Merrill Mahaffey estimated that at least 30,000 film exposures were taken on the 10 day trip by the participants. Peter’s main photographic interests were Havasu and Lava Falls, Stone Creek and Marble and Matkatambia Canyons. He also took many photographs of the rafts in the muddy Colorado River rapids. Peter did many wonderful paintings from this trip. I found a note in Peter’s file where he talks about the painting Marble Canyon 2. He wrote “Cold light on polished granite and strong diagonals create visual drama. Ambiguous scale is rescued by a few small clumps of grass- lack of foreground horizontals leaves the viewer floating.” See picture attached.

To sum up the excursion Merrill described the group as “a boisterous tribe of ten year old.” From what Peter told me a lot of beer was consumed on this trip but also a lot of great art work was also created. The artwork created would end up in an exhibition a few years down the road.

In April of 1984 Peter and I attended the opening of the R.A.F.T exhibition at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. The first thing we saw as we walked in the door were these giant rafts suspended from the ceiling. The next thing we noticed was the magnificent art work on the walls. The show would close on June 3rd and then travel to other venues in Flagstaff and Yuma.

In 2007 a group of 20 former participants gathered to celebrate the 25 anniversary of this excursion.

Peter had a show at The Leslie Levy Gallery in Scottsdale of paintings of the raft boats in the muddy churning rapids. This August marks the 40th anniversary of the trip.

Pat Weaver on National Trails Day and Peter's work in the Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado

National Trails Day is an annual event that takes place on the 1st Saturday of June. This date was established back in 1993 by The American Hiking Society, a non profit organization. Their mission is to bring awareness to the many trails all over the USA and to promote public service participation to maintain and clean up trails in local communities. Trails are not just for hikers. They are used by runners, horseback riders, cross country skiers, bicyclists and dirt bike riders just to name a few. Trails provide access to waterways for fishing, kayaking and canoeing.

On a trip to Colorado in 2014 Peter visited Garden of the Gods Park. Garden of the Gods is 1,300 acres of massive sandstone formations located at the foot of Pikes Peak on the west side of Colorado Springs. The park is a registered Natural National Landmark and has many hiking trails and a visitor center that hosts 2 million visitors a year. For over 3,000 years Native Americans considered the region a neutral sacred ground and a hub for trade between nomadic tribes. The Ute’s tribe was native to the area and used it as their home during the winter months. The area received its official name back in 1859 when two railroad land surveyors, Metancthon Beach and Rufus Cable, first came upon these towering fins of jagged rock jutting over 300 feet in the air. They were scouting out land for what would be the town of Old Colorado City. The story goes that Beach exclaimed” This would be a capital place for a beer garden.” Cable replied “Beer garden! Why, this place is fit for the gods to assemble.”

In 1878 Professor James Kerr found a dinosaur skeleton in what would become the park area. The dinosaur was named Theiophytalia Kerri. Theios in the Greek language means “belonging to the Gods” and phytalia means “garden.”

In1879 railroad mogul Charles Perkins bought the portion of the land that contained the majority of the unusual formations. In 1909, two years after his passing, his family deeded the property to the city of Colorado Springs with the stipulation that the park would always remain “forever free” to the public.

Just like Charles Perkins there are people in your own community who advocate for the preservation of public land, spaces and trails. In our small community two local residents develop a program called “Nick’s Interns”. The program was established after their son Nick passed away in a tragic car accident. Nick was a person who grew up loving the great outdoors and had spent much of his high school and college years working outdoor jobs. “Nick’s Interns” employs teenagers to work outdoors in a conservation program that provides trail restoration, stream clean up, invasive plant species removal and more. The program also trains the participants for future opportunities in the field of environmental conservation management.

 I will leave you with a quote from Edward Abbey “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”

Pat Weaver on Arches National Monument and Arches National Park and Holbrook's paintings.

Arches National Monument April 12th 1929 /Arches National Park April 12th1971

Long before Apple tracking devices it was pretty easy to tell where Peter was in his travels by the dates of his paintings. Nothing was more exciting for Peter than to be out on location. It’s about the only time in his life he would be up before dawn to catch the sun rise over a spot of interest. Peter and I and our daughter made a trip to Arches back in 1985. Peter would return to the park in 1991, 1997 and 2009.

The early history of the area indicates that hunter-gatherers migrated to the region 10,000 years ago at the end of the ice age. 2,000 years ago Ancestral Pueblos began cultivating beans, maze and squash there. Over the following years many nomadic tribes such as the Utes, Navajo, Shoshone and Paiutes would use and inhabit the area. In 1775 the first Spanish missionaries arrived, possibly looking for a new travel route to California. 100 years later European missionaries, farmers, prospectors and ranchers set down roots.

The park contains the world’s largest (over 2,000) concentration of natural sandstone formations. The most recognized being the 52 feet tall “Delicate Arch.” It is said that early cowboys had their own names for this arch such as “The Chaps”, “School Teachers Bloomers” and the “Pant’s Crotch.” Delicate Arch Trail (3 miles round trip) is considered the most popular trail in the park. It is rated difficult because of lack of shade and slippery rocks. I remember Peter telling me the story of him being at Delicate Arch as the moon came up. He was able to take many wonderful photographs of the event but soon realized he didn’t have a flashlight to get down off the rocks. Luckily the moon provided the light he needed to find his way back to his truck.

Peter did 7 paintings of Delicate Arch, the largest being 46x70. This painting was a sweeping view of the arch, its surrounding rock structure and the La Sal mountains in the background. Peter also did paintings of other park formations such as The Garden of Eden, The Organ, Double Arch, The Marching Men, The Devil’s Garden, Klondike Bluffs and Landscape Arch. Many of these paintings are still available for sale. See jpegs attached.

I will leave you with a quote from artist Thomas Eakins: “The big artist…..keeps an eye on nature and steals her tools.”

Pat Weaver's letter about "White Mountain Patriarch" commissioned for the federal courthouse in Sacramento

According to the dictionary the definition of a forest is “a large area covered with trees and undergrowth.” This description seems pretty vague but maybe that’s because each forest is so complex and has its own distinct ecosystem.

Back around 1997 Peter, along with a dozen California artists, received a GSA (General Services Administration) commission to do artwork for the soon to be constructed Robert T. Matsui U.S Courthouse in downtown Sacramento CA. Doing a commission can be a long drawn out process. This particular commission had to go through many levels of committee approval, which meant Peter had to travel 7 hours to attend a series of meetings. After a year of emails, meetings and sketch submissions, Peter was finally assigned a large vertical wall on one of the upper floors. With this information in hand Peter set off to find the perfect California subject matter. This led him to the White Mountain region of the Inyo National Forest in Eastern California. The word Inyo in the Native American language is translated to “Dwelling Place of the Great Spirit”. What better name for a forest that houses the world’s oldest living trees, the ancient Great Basin Bristlecone Pines.

Peter’s interest in unusual trees and their root systems dates back to when he first moved to California in 1970. His show at the Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago in 1976 and the William Sawyer Gallery in San Francisco were entirely this subject matter. So it was not surprising that Peter would see the beauty in these ancient survivors. These gnarled, weather beaten resilient trees ( Pinus Longaeva) are thought to be at least 5,000 years old. Scientists list them as the oldest living non- clonal organism on the planet. These trees grow in the sub-alpine regions of Eastern California and are scattered through the high mountain regions of Nevada and to a lesser extent in Utah. The most famous of these trees is named Methuselah, which is listed as 4,850 years old. The forest service says there is an older tree but they refuse to give out its name or location for protection. Fragments of dead trees, trunks and limbs scatter the forest floor and provide nutrients for the living trees. However most new seedlings die within the first year with a mortality rate of 99%.

About a month before the installation of Peter’s commissioned painting titled “White Mountain Patriarch,” a spark from a PG&E electrical transformer started a grass fire about 1/4th of a mile west of our house. When I heard about this fire all I could think of was the painting and all the meetings, field work and emails that it took for the commission to finally approve the final design. I rushed down to Peter studio and grabbed the painting. This was not an easy task, since the painting was 72x48 inches. Since Peter had gone to town earlier in his pick up truck I wasn’t sure what to do next with the painting except to slowly start walking it down the county road away from our house and the fire. Lucky for us the fire was put out rather quickly by local volunteers. When Peter arrived home he was surprised to see his painting in the living room. I told him the story of the fire and he gave me a big hug and thanked me for my “heroic effort” to save his artwork from becoming just a pile of ash.

The Robert T Matsui U.S. Courthouse was completed in 1999. Peter and I, along with the other commissioned artists and guests, were invited to the grand opening. I am not sure if you can go into the courthouse these days just to have a look at the art. Better yet, if you’re in this neck of the woods, go out for a hike and have a look at the ancient trees in the Inyo Forest in person!

Pat Weaver's Grand Canyon News Letter

It was in 1977 that Peter and I first saw the Grand Canyon when we took a tourist charter flight over it. I remember it being a very small plane, maybe only 6 seats as opposed to the 19 seater that operate today. From the air we could see the vastness of this mile deep arid-land eroded gorge that was formed somewhere around 6 million years ago.

In late summer of 1977 Peter bought himself a BMW motorcycle. By February of 1978 he was itching to take the bike on the road. Somehow Peter convinced me that a mid winter trip to the Grand Canyon would be a great adventure. How does one prepare for a motorcycle trip in the dead of winter? You wear lots of layers. I personally wore two pairs of socks, gloves, ski masks, wool long underwear, sweaters, and a leather jacket with a down jacket over it. All we could carry, and this included camera equipment, had to fit in two side saddle bags. I don’t remember it being that cold until we got to the Grand Canyon. Snow covered the ground and all the lookouts. This was just the type of conditions Peter sought to photograph. The snow provides a relief from the normal sun baked earth tone colors of the canyon, especially noticeable in the hot summer months.

On our way home we ran into a typical torrential California rain storm. For four hours we battled the weather. By the time we got home we were soaked to the bone. Peter lit a fire in our wood stove and we took off our boots and placed them under the stove. For the next 3 days you could hear the boots sizzle as the water slowly evaporated. The whole experience was one we remembered fondly for years to come. The Grand Canyon became a focal point of Peter’s career as a painter of the Southwest.

In an interview for American Art Collector back in 2006 Peter made this statement about painting the region “It might seem that all the work is done in an effort to really know these places, and that is true to a degree. But it is also true that I wouldn’t want to live here enjoying a view that people come from all over the world to see. For then I might really know the place and wouldn’t feel the quickening of the blood I get each time I now approach it.” He also stated “A painting can’t go into geographic detail, but great age is felt in the shapes, textures and colors.”

About the painting “Stormy Zoroaster” (40x50) Peter wrote: “I watched this storm collect on the North Rim and spill into the canyon abyss. I have painted the view maybe a dozen times, the drama still stirs me.” Peter considered this painting as close a definition of his artwork as any he could have chosen. He also painted a smaller study. In both paintings you can see the excitement in how he handled the sky.

In 1994 Peter produced a lithograph of the Grand Canyon titled “Sumner Butte”. This lithograph is in the permanent collection of The Springfield Art Museum (Missouri), The Museum of Northern Arizona, The Tucson Art Museum and The Museum of Southwest Art in Midland Texas. We have a limited amount of these lithographs (unframed) still available for sale. If you are interested please let us know.