Amery Bohling
Artist Amery Bohling is well known for her vivid depictions of the American West, her light-infused work ranging from the seascapes of Cabo San Lucas to the granite cliffs and waterfalls of Monterey Bay, California. Her favorite subject, however - and the one for which she is most famous - is the Grand Canyon, endlessly fascinating, she says, for its vastness, complexity, and transcendent light. She has painted the Canyon many times, finding challenges in capturing the timelessness of the rocks, the ephemeral quality of the light and sky and the fiery reds and brilliant blues that dominate that unique landscape.
Although she grew up in Phoenix, Bohling didn't discover the Canyon until long after she had earned her B.F.A. in painting and drawing from the University of Arizona and spent a year of her formal study at the Marchutz School of Art in Aix-en-Provence, France. There she learned to paint outdoors ("en plein air" in French) with the subject in full view, a technique that allows the artist to incorporate natural light and movement. She left France with a passion for outdoor painting, and in those early days, when she lived in California, her subjects were often found on the Pacific coast or the deserts of the Southwest. She experienced the Canyon for the first time in 2003, stopping by the North Rim after a work trip in Canyon de Chelly. She was mesmerized by the play of light and amazing colors, and it wasn't long before she had made Arizona her home again, setting up a studio/gallery in Old Town Scottsdale, where she finishes paintings she has often started onsite.
Her work might best be described as Romantic Naturalism, portraying the natural world with an undercurrent of human emotion. "I enjoy playing with reality," Bohling says, "and keying up colors to make it more intense." She creates mood through her representation of sunlight and clouds, sometimes painting humans and animals at work in a landscape that otherwise seems infinite and indifferent.
Bohling participates in national and international art exhibitions, and her work has been featured in magazines such as Western Art Collector, Southwest Art Magazine, Plein Air Magazine, American Artist Magazine and Phoenix Home & Garden. Her painting entitled Approaching the Windy Ridge was featured on the cover of Arizona Highways in February of 2019, an issue celebrating the Grand Canyon's Centennial. She can be found on You Tube by searching "Amery Bohling," and she is a popular instructor at the Scottsdale Artists School, where she once studied herself. Bohling has recently released two instructional videos with Streamline Video/Liliedahl Production: "Seascape Secrets" and "Painting the Grand Canyon." She has also been a main stage speaker at the Tucson and San Diego Plein Air Conventions.
Her awards include: 2016 Grand Canyon Celebration of Art, Honorable Mention; 2015 American Impressionist Society, Princeton Brush Award; 2010 Scottsdale Beaux Art Exhibition, Best in Show; 2008 Allied Artists of America, Fall Exhibition; 2007 Allied Artists of America, John Young Hunter Memorial Award; 2005 California Art Club's Emerging Artist Award.
