ELIZABETH BLACK

Boulder, Colorado

Elizabeth Black worked as a river guide in Grand Canyon for many years. She first painted watercolors on a raft trip in the canyon in 1975. She and her husband, landscape photographer Christopher Brown, explore the west together, carrying their art-making equipment to the most scenic spots they can find. Elizabeth has won numerous awards, including Best of Show at Grand Canyon Celebration of Art (most recently in 2020), and her work may be found in many private and public collections. She is represented by Mary Williams Fine Arts in Boulder, Colorado, and the Sugarman-Peterson Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In the lower canyon, dawn’s slanting low light is gentle. Violet shadows and golden cliffs will soon change to sun-bleached barrens as the scorching sun wheels across the sky. But for now, cool moist air smells verdant, and still waters reflect dawn’s glowing palette. This mighty Colorado River, this thin green line in a parched landscape, this miracle of water in the desert generously shares its life-giving gifts as it flows to the sea.

First Light Over Still Waters; Mile 220, On the Grand | 22x30, oil