Tell Some Friends About This Page!

A message from artist Kenneth Holder: In the spring of 1996, having just read Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage," I was inspired to plan my own voyage of discovery along the Lewis and Clark Trail. I had never before traveled any of the lands covered by the expedition, other than the state of Missouri. I decided to embark on the Trail Project, for which I would travel Lewis and Clark's route and attempt to record what I saw with paintings. Read more...    To see individual paintings visit the Lewis and Clark Project gallery.

The only rule I had for myself was that I would only picture the trail itself, and/or the landscape that could be seen directly from it.

In the summer of 1996, my wife Jan and I set out along the trail to see it for ourselves. From that start until the end of the year 2000, we continued to explore and I continued to paint.

There are three basic phases to the paintings that were made. The first phase is made up of more than 300 sketchbook watercolors. In Phase 2 are eight larger-scale watercolors made of some of the more significant and/or interesting scenes along the way. Phase 3 comprises 75 acrylic-on-canvas paintings.

To read more about Kenneth Holder, check out the Sierra magazine article about him or visit his Web site.

For more information about the Sierra Club's Lewis and Clark campaign or to find out how you can help, contact lewisandclark@sierraclub.org.