Artists are drawn to the Grand Canyon, and each year the Grand Canyon Association holds a plein air painting event that picks the best completed in one week — plus select studio paintings — for its awards. One artist has won the People’s Choice Award for three years in a row now.
James McGrew, who serves as a summer seasonal naturalist in Yosemite National Park, won the People’s Choice Award this year and the two previous years at the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art, which is headquartered at the South Rim at the Kolb Studio.
“Colors of Evening at Yavapai,” by John D. Cogan, acrylic, 54 x 22 in. The centerpiece in a body of work that earned Best of Show, sponsored by PleinAir magazine
Paula Swain paints the Grand Canyon.
The big winner was John D. Cogan, who won PleinAir Magazine’s Best of Show Award, which is given to a body of work. The Artists’ Choice Award went to Cody DeLong.
Artists’ Choice winner Cody Delong, People’s Choice winner James McGrew, and PleinAir Magazine’s
Best of Show winner John D. Cogan
“It was a week of rain and lightning, hail, threatening clouds, fast-moving clouds, and wind, ending with three crystal-clear days of sunshine,” reports Kathy Duley, the coordinator of the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art and a sales representative for PleinAir magazine.
