Roadmap Or Hike To a Painting™

Kathy Gazes Back on Bright Angel is a tribute to my sister, and a memory of our hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, nearly 50 years ago.  My sister Kathy was my best friend, and we always kept that bond, but we lost Kathy to a tragic disease 25 years ago.  That’s just one reason I treasure our adventures like that hike.  My first job out of college was teaching on the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico.  She joined me on the drive across the country to move there and We were both taken with the breathtaking landscape and this incredible Tribal community.  She moved out the next year, after she graduated.  For the next two years, we were roommates and had all sorts of great times.  One of those happened at the end of Kathy’s first year.  When school got out, we drove to the Grand Canyon.  We hiked down on the first day and camped in Indian Gardens.  The next day we got all the way to the Colorado river at the bottom, and later hiked back up, she actually beat me to the rim.  That moment when she reached the rim was the inspiration for this painting.   In my mind she is gazing back down on the trail, satisfied with her accomplishment and ready for the next adventure.  The image actually blends elements from both the North and South rim, including El Tovar and Cape Royal.  This scene was painted in the studio from color studies and a completed painting I did on the South Rim.  The completed painting “Morning After Monsoon At The Grand Canyon” was done in the Spring of 2022 on a beautiful morning, and may be viewed on my Website.  The experience made me want to paint a much larger Grand Canyon painting, which resulted in this work.

Roadmap To A Painting or Landscape Travelogue 

An integral part of my BLOG, is a travelogue describing where the painting was created.  Obviously, the Grand Canyon is iconic and there are many ways to get there, but I always start my drives in Santa Fe.   So, we begin by heading South from Santa Fe on I 25 and then West on I 40 toward the cities of Grants and Gallup.  The side trips are many, including Laguna and Acoma Pueblos, but we will continue to Gallup, which has numerous great places to visit, including Richardson’s and Perry Null as iconic trading posts and Earls for the best Navajo Frybread Tacos anywhere.  Another stop worth making on I 40 West is the La Posada, originally a Fred Harvey Hotel on the Santa Fe Rail line, before heading on to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.  My recommendation for an alternate route is to head North from Gallup on US 491 and then NM 264 toward Window Rock, Arizona.  This is an incredible drive through Navajo and then Hopi country.  The historic Hubbell Trading Post https://www.nps.gov/hutr/index.htmlis worth a stop and the Hopi Cultural Center as well.  If you are hungry for another Navajo Taco, Cameron Trading Post is a good stop too.  All of these spots are steeped in history, and at offer the opportunity to pick a memento of your trip from one of the artisans.

Have fun!

For More About Jack Mc Gowan, please visit www.jackmcgowan-artist.com