((PKG)) GRAND CANYON PAINTER
((Banner: Painting Canyons))
((Reporter/Camera: Arturo Martínez))
((Map: Grand Canyon, Arizona))
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
I just wanted to throw myself into nature's embrace and let the canyon change me, teach me something. That's why I went to the Grand Canyon and my artwork is an outpouring of that.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
I've been painting the canyon over 40 years. I've done hundreds and hundreds of oil paintings and 1000 drawings and sketches like these.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
I wanted to get in a place where nature was completely in control, all the way. The Grand Canyon has been the major portion of my life's work. I randomly visited Arizona in the summer of 1969. I moved to the Grand Canyon shortly after that. I went to work for the National Park Service, taking care of their water supply, bringing in big tools and fixing a pipe. It’s not a job I would have chosen, but I wanted to live in the canyon so I did what I had to do.
Deep into the canyon, very long walk. Stayed for 33 years, right there.
We raised three children in the canyon. We did homeschool. It was hard, it was difficult, but we were able to pull it off. It was just us, there was nobody else and for miles around.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
That's what it was like when our kids were growing up down there, sitting on our porch. This is right off our front porch, looking straight out. Here I'm carrying a very big painting out of the canyon. I have it strapped onto a backpack frame. It looks like a desert landscape with nothing growing down there but that's not true. It’s very plush place, lots of water, broad leaf deciduous trees, fish, creeks, springs, giant springs, waterfalls cascading down. But you have to hike and go a long way to get to these places.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
You know, everybody talks about the red rocks in the canyon and I understand that they're beautiful, but this is a tremendous, magnificent combination of nature's display of beauty. These are true colors of the Grand Canyon as well. What in the world, what kind of a story is this rock telling us? It took me about 20 years of living in the canyon, before I finally started noticing these smaller features.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
I'm looking for some type of a bench of rock that sticks out a little bit, possibly with a tree, one of these kind of pines bending over the canyon, creating an arch, sort of, that then frames something coming up out of the canyon, and I can capture the whole thing in one view.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
The first step to one of my oil paintings comes through direct observation. I will go back to the site, maybe even spend three days watching, waiting and watching and I mean waiting. Just wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Finally the light emerges, the time of day is correct. The sun makes the difference for everything. You know, it gives that angling light and illuminates certain things and other things fall into shadow and makes things stand out.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
Pay attention to nature and nature will deliver for you.
And if I go up to the canyon and the light is not good, I guarantee you, the sketch pad does not come out of the pack.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
This sketch book has.....I just started it. It's got a few things in it. I was just trying to frame in some thoughts here. At some point, I can come back here again on a better day. The light today, it was just not there. This is why it takes months to get your view, to finally get your painting.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
I've drawn, sketched, painted everything. So, yeah, every one of these locations means something to me. I've painted from way over there on the North Rim, on the North Rim over there, on the North Rim over there, and I painted from everywhere around there, all down along this bench, that point over there, and right over there is where I lived, 16 miles hiking from this side on the trail. Mules would come down and that's how we'd get our groceries, some of the times on mule back. Other times, they'd be bringing the helicopter in for some reason, and we’d get it that way.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
The original is six feet high, nine feet long.
((Tourist))
Well, you do some really amazing work.
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
This one over here is probably 50% smaller, reduced than the original, and it's in a private collection down in Phoenix. These are older paintings though. I did all these back in the, mostly in the 90s.
((Tourist))
Ok, cheese.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
I miss it terribly, I really do. It's something that will never not be there, but there's more in this world, and I'm finding it.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
Along about 2003, 2004, 2005 I realized that we had not lived in town in over 30 years. To put it in perspective, Richard Nixon was president of the United States when we moved into the canyon. It was time to go and do something else.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
Sometimes I wonder though, was it more civilized down there in nature than actually here? It was just nature coming at you 24/7, but you move to town and suddenly you realize this is the new paradigm, is the manufactured environment, false environment, where nature has been altered and twisted and forced to do our bidding in some fashion.
((NATS))
((Bruce Aiken, Painter))
But I look at the Grand Canyon now and say, I love you. I will always love you. Thank you for everything you've given me, but I have to go look at something else too.
((NATS))
