Join us for the Escalante Canyons Art Festival, Come celebrate the stunning public lands of Utah’s canyon country. Hosted in Escalante, Utah along Scenic Byway 12 between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks in the heart of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Plein air and studio competitions, art exhibits, on-site sales, workshops, demonstrations, arts and crafts fair, live music, guided walks, and much more.

Schedule Of Events:

9:00 am – 10:00 am - Escalante Historic Walking Tour – Thursday
Tour begins at the Peoples Exchange, one of Escalante’s most photographed historic buildings.  Come along to learn more about many of the historic structures throughout town.  Escalante was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 as a National Historic District with areas of noted significance in architecture, social history, commerce, agriculture, and exploration/settlement.  

Location: Meet at People’s Exchange
100 North Center Street
Escalante, 84726

9:00 am – 11:30 am - California Girls: All Medium Painting Demo
What could be more inspiring than a landscape demo featuring a watercolorist, a pastelist, an oil painter using a brush, and an oil painter using a palette knife? Susan De’Armond, Patricia Rose Ford, Nita Harper, and Terry Chacon promise to wow you by painting the same landscape using entirely different plein air techniques.

Location: Slot Canyon Inn
3680 Utah-12
Escalante, Utah 84726

9:00 am – 1:00 pm - Bob Stevenson: Tracks Across Time
Backcountry Park Ranger Bob Stevenson: Through science and imagination, we’ll travel across time, where present and past converge to cross paths with a dinosaur. 

HIKE INFO: 

We will caravan/carpool from the Escalante Interagency Visitor Center to the track site.  There, we will hike up short but steep slickrock onto the outcrop.  Hike is not universally accessible.

WHAT TO BRING: 

2 liters of water
Lunch and snacks
Hiking shoes
Sunscreen, sunglasses, and hat
Curiosity
Imagination

Location: Caravan from the Escalante Interagency Visitor Center

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm - Günther Haidenthaller: Watercolor Simplified
Watercolor has a reputation for being “hard” which is completely undeserved. Yes, it’s a bit unforgiving, but not difficult. We will first cover the basics of composition/design and dialing in the values. This short (1.5–2 hours) demo will show you how to create background washes with a variety of interesting colors, soft or even lost edges by painting wet in wet, then hard-edged darker shapes for color and temperature contrast, and establishing correct, believable values. It’s all about just having fun staining paper!

Location: Hole-in-the-Rock Escalante Heritage Center
1300 UT-12
Escalante

8:00 pm – 9:30 pm - Dr. Jackie Grant: Bats of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Night Walk)
Join Dr. Grant to learn about the variety of bats in the area and maybe even record some as they fly overhead to look for their insect dinners.

We’ll meet at the Escalante River Trailhead parking lot on Rt. 12 at the bridge location just around the corner from Calf Creek campground. The bat discussion will take place in the parking lot, then we will walk to the cottonwoods to look for and listen to bats.

This talk requires a walk of about a quarter mile through sandy trails along the river.

Bring sturdy, comfortable shoes, a portable chair if you want to sit, and comfort items such as water and snacks.

Location: Meet at Escalante River (Bridge) Trailhead
Escalante, Utah 84726