AMERY BOHLING

Scottsdale, Arizona

Amery Bohling is an Arizona-based painter best known for her masterful works of Grand Canyon. She is proud to hold membership to the prestigious Oil Painters of America, California Art Club, and Grand Canyon Conservancy. In 2019, her work was selected as the cover for Arizona Highway Magazine’s February issue, dedicated to celebrating Grand Canyon National Park’s Centennial. Other print features have been included in Phoenix Home and Garden, Plein Air Magazine, Western Art Collector, and Southwest Art Magazine. When not painting at the edge of the canyon, Amery can often be found working in her studio and gallery based in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale or painting Mexican seascapes in Cabo San Lucas.

I found this spectacular view of the canyon as I was walking one morning between Yavapai and Mather point. To me, it’s an ideal composition, thanks to the rich, dark trees in the foreground that frame the sun-drenched summits beyond. This is, after all, how many of us discover the canyon. We approach a sea of trees and suddenly right there before us is an unexpected, unimaginable chasm!

I painted this scene in the brilliant reds, yellows, violets, and blues that I remembered seeing that day. In many ways, its luminosity and vibrant color recall Thomas Moran, whose canyon paintings are also infused with emotion.

Photographs are a wonderful tool for the painter. They capture exactly what is there, but as an artist, I’m free to minimize or elaborate certain elements of the landscape for the greater good of the painting. I can be creative and deviate from what I see. I paint my memory of the view because the best stuff—the light on the cliffs, the mystery of the trees, my sense of wonder—is preserved in my mind. A photograph simply can’t present it the same way.

The Great American Chasm | 24x36, oil