American Legacy: Our National Parks September 14, 2011

In 1871, artist Thomas Moran ventured into a Wyoming landscape and captured its rich variations of color and light. These field studies were instrumental in the creation of Yellowstone, our nation's first national park. Since then, artists have joined naturalists and preservationists in convincing presidents and legislators to set aside more than 350 locations as part of our American Legacy. This magnificent exhibition features 100 paintings of national parks by members of the Plein-Air Painters of America. The term 'plein-ai'" refers to the conviction that creating art on-location is critical to documenting a visual and emotional point in time and place.