The Rockville Bridge is one of my favorite structures in Southern Utah. It has both character and charm. Plus, it’s something of a gateway to one of my favorite places in Southern Utah: Grafton.
Another one of my favorite places in Southern Utah is Kayenta, the desert community on the west side of Ivins City that was designed by developer Terry Marten to have a focus on the landscape and the arts, rather than golf, like many other high-end developments in the region. And my favorite event in this neighborhood every year is the Kayenta Street Painting Festival.
So this past weekend was full of a lot of favorites for me. There were even a couple of concerts at Tuacahn Amphitheatre in the mix, but you’ll have to read about those in my review of the performances by Clint Black and Peter Cetera, also included here at TheSpectrum.com or in the print edition of Where It’s @.
As for the art, Rockville hosted its first Rockville Bridge Plein Air event. It was originally planned as one of a few fundraisers to support preservation work on the historic bridge. Thankfully, though, the goal was met prior to the plein air event so all funds raised from the show will go toward maintenance of the bridge.
From Bach to Michael Jackson, cello duo plays it all
Beaver Dam Jam celebrates 10th anniversary
Pondering the rules and subjectivity of art
It was a three-day event but I only made it out to Rockville for a short time the afternoon of April 28. A map located at the Rockville Post Office showed where the participating artists were painting at any given time. It had been fairly windy, so some had already called it a day, but a few were still out and about. I noticed a few were in the Grafton area, so I decided to head that way.
Although I’ve crossed the Rockville Bridge dozens of times, I still get a little exciting with each journey. It’s almost like passing through a time portal.
Turning west along the Grafton Road, I began to watch for painter Royden Card. The map showed him painting somewhere along the road east of Grafton. Near the turnoff for Smithsonian Butte Scenic Backway, I saw a small gray car parked alongside the road with a mustachioed man behind the wheel … painting.
Obviously, Royden knows how to paint on a blustery day.
I stopped to talk with him briefly. As he rolled down the window, Royden acknowledged he might be cheating a little. After all, “en plein air” is a French term for those who paint in the “open air.” But his parking spot was also a nice vantage point for the scene he happened to be painting.
Then I continued on to the ghost town of Grafton itself, made famous by the bicycle scene in the 1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” The last time I tried to visit Grafton I was with Katharine Ross, the actress who played Etta Place in the film. But muddy roads prevented us from reaching it.
New sculptures appear in downtown St. George
Investing in culture: Cities see value in arts
This time I made it to Grafton without a problem. But when I arrived, I didn’t see any artists painting there. Apparently the wind became too much for them.
What I did notice was new construction on the corner where the historic Sarah Hastings home once stood. I believe it was the same structure that served as the home for Etta Place, Katharine’s character in the film. If so, various scenes were filmed on its porch. However, nothing has stood on that corner for at least a decade or more.
Yet it appears that someone is rebuilding that historic structure. So I’m going to look into it and maybe we’ll have a story on it at some point.
While investigating the construction, I noticed a pickup with a camper shell parked along the dirt road and wondered if it belonged to an artist. Sure enough, there was Roland Lee, standing behind an easel on the other side. With trees behind him to the north and his pickup to the east, he had a nice windbreak and was able to work on his watercolors with ease.
Roland showed me his sketchbook, which featured a quick drawing of the scene he was painting: a pastoral view of an old house with trees and red cliffs in the background. It was neat to see the three variations of the scene — sketch, painting, reality — all at the same time.
The wind began to pick up as I drove back toward Rockville, but I had managed to find two of the best artists in Southern Utah so it was a good adventure. My next visual art experience came Sunday afternoon as Cammie, my wife, and Nathan, the boy we mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters joined me for the Kayenta Street Painting Festival.
Nathan is a budding artist so we try to immerse him in the arts as often as we can. It was actually his first time attending the Street Painting Festival, so it was especially fun to introduce him to the colorful work that decorates the “streets” around Kayenta’s Coyote Gulch Art Village.
After years of attending this event, I’m still impressed with how these talented artists create such magnificent work in only two days’ time and using only pastels. Even most of the student work from younger artists is typically impressive.
As usual, though, there were a few that stood out. My favorite student piece was probably the creative take on Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” by students from Vista School. They updated the classic painting by attaching chains between her famous earring and a nose ring.
It was a little more difficult to pick a favorite from among the professionals but Cammie, Nathan and I all agreed that our favorite was a painting of an American Indian by Anat Ronen. Not only was it visually striking and full of detail, the artist used an uncommon perspective for a portrait.
Rock on: Southern Utah grows as climbing destination
Native dancer combines modern moves with tradition
This painting was among a handful located near the new Kayenta Center for the Arts, which will finally be dedicated May 5. I’m excited to soon attend a variety of artistic events in this new facility.
Email reporter Brian Passey at [email protected] or call him at 435-674-6296. Follow him on social media at Facebook.com/PasseyBrian or on Twitter and Instagram, @BrianPassey.
Tempting: A brief glimpse at the other arts events tempting me this week.
· The Beaver Dam Jam festival runs from 10:30 a.m. May 5 through 7:30 p.m. May 7 at Beaver Dam Station, 401 Old Highway 91, Littlefield, Arizona. $20 per day or $50 for three days. Visit BeaverDamStation.com or call 928-347-5589.
· Eric Dodge and John Houston’s Gospel Choir in concert at 11:30 a.m. May 5 at Town & Country Bank, 405 E. St. George Boulevard, St. George. Free. Visit TCBankUtah.com or call 435-673-1150.
· The Film and Media Alliance of Southern Utah presents screenings of “The Hit” and “The Nautilus” at 8 p.m. May 5 at the Electric Theater, 68 E. Tabernacle St., St. George. $2. Search for event on Facebook.
385-444-7026
Service Areas
