2010 Exhibition Schedule

Best known for his luminous paintings of the Grand Canyon, Merrill Mahaffey moved to Arizona in 1963 to earn his Masters of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University and study with artists John Waddell and Harry Wood. He went on to teach at Phoenix College for 14 years before he began painting full time. He was already smitten by the Grand Canyon, having first seen it in 1961. He has since rafted the Colorado River through the Canyon 30 times, capturing its sensuous beauty and magical light in his paintings. “Light is almost a poetic science to me”, Mahaffey says. “I’ve studied light my whole life. There isn’t a moment in the day that I’m not aware of where the sun is.”