Canyon on Canvas

Canyon on Canvas. . Artist Thomas Moran was a storehouse of pictures. In 1873, geologist John Wesley Powell invited Moran to accompany his geologic survey of the Grand Canyon region. For Moran, the canyon was "by far the most awfully grand and impressive scene." As a premier painter of American landscapes, Moran helped inspire Western tourism and pushed Congress toward the establishment of Western national parks. In an era of black and white photographs and etchings, Moran's vibrantly colored paintings brought Grand Canyon to life for a nation., To the scientist Nature is a storehouse of facts, laws, processes; to the artist she is a storehouse of pictures.... John Burroughs, Captions , Thomas Moran, 1837-1926, composed highly structured, exquisitely painted pieces in his studio from his loosely sketched and broadly painted watercolor field studies., Moran placed no value on literal transcriptions of nature. Instead, his paintings were idealized landscapes, drawing from the inspirations that surrounded him.