Aside from a brief period of formal instruction at the Art Institute of Chicago, Edgar Payne was largely self-taught but progressed eventually from sign and mural painting to a very successful career as a California Impressionist plein-air landscape painter.Scenes from the Sierra Nevada and desert canyons of Arizona and New Mexico are his most recognizable subject matter and Canyon Portal itself stems from one of his many visits to his favorite landscape location, the Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona. The portals of sheer red sandstone cliffs mark the beginning of 18 tortuous miles of desert canyon.