Beyond the Landscape
The mystical art of landscapes is about so much more than merely recreating the intricacies of the sky, grass, trees, and majestic mountains—even though the awe and complexity in those alone could provide a lifetime of artists’ material.
It’s about communicating the inherent emotions of a place and that ability to transport you to another. Each of these artists’ styles and mediums are as different as the far corners of the globe they originate from, but their common thread is choosing to exhibit their artwork surrounded by the enchanting natural backdrop of Park City. By Laura Jackson
Celebrating Nature
Gallery Mar, Bridgette Meinhold
In glorifying the natural beauty found in landscapes, artists also draw attention to their importance and can have a tremendous impact on how we view our environment. “My work is deeply rooted in nature and sustainability, with the hope of showing that we are all connected—to each other, to our roots, to the air, the water, the wind and the sun,” explains Bridgette Meinhold from Gallery MAR. To communicate her love of the landscape, she creates encaustic paintings employing an old technique that uses beeswax and damar resin to create interesting, organic works of art. Her paintings lend a mysterious mood and dramatic expression to the raw beauty she experiences in nature.
Silver Queen Gallery, Aaron Bushnell
“Traditional ‘picturesque landscape’ images of the past are becoming a diminishing reality. I am environmentally mindful, and hope to bring awareness to others of our environmental impact,” said Silver Queen Gallery artist Aaron Bushnell. Bushnell further explains his artistic passion when he said, “I have things that I wish to communicate, and sometimes pictures are the best way of doing
that.” With his favored mediums of oil and pastel, this young, yet already accomplished painter, communicates with great maturity through his lively, loose brushwork producing beautifully authentic
atmospheric effects.
West Light Images, David Shultz
Landscape photographer David Shultz explains how he uses his talents to share nature’s splendor, “With photography I am able to capture a moment and place forever.” Shultz explains that when the conditions come together to make the difference between an image of a pretty place, and one that captures a dramatic shot of an unseen magical moment, the months and years of preparation are all worth it. “One of the things I enjoy most about my work is sharing these moments, telling the stories, and hopefully educating along the way.”
Julie Nester Gallery, John McCormick
Landscape artists understand that place is not merely a physical location. How a place makes us feel is ultimately more important than its specific details. From the Julie Nester Gallery, John McCormick considers his oil paintings to be not about a particular place, but rather a state of mind. Drawing on both eastern and western traditions, he is interested in “the division of space, spatial illusion and the flattening of space…” His work demonstrates a remarkable ability to capture the essence of a natural, glowing light. Communicating a pure refreshing beauty in his landscapes, his expressive yet soothing color palatte lends a timeless appeal to his paintings.
Meyer Gallery, David Edwards
Working in a variety of media including oil, acrylic, tar and beeswax, David Edwards, an artist from Meyer Gallery, attempts to depict spaces previously unseen, yet somehow strangely familiar and possessing an alluring and magnetic pull. He explains that they are archetypal images, pulled from somewhere in the subconscious. According to Edwards, “Working from photographs, I attempt to distill and filter each image in its most basic and elemental state. Through the reduction of detail and color, I strip away at the image in an effort to reach its essence, its archetypal core.”
JGO Gallery, Jeremy Mangan
Jeremy Mangan creates acrylic and oil paintings that begin somewhere, and nowhere, in the American West. He describes them as set in real places that don’t exist. Mangan explains, “I’m interested in this place I’m from and love, in crawling inside the vast and loaded notion of ‘The West’, armed with all my experience, knowledge, reverence, fascination, preconceptions, misconceptions, outright ignorance, and running around like a grown-up kid hunting for things worth seeing—and then painting them.”
Old Towne Gallery, Allen Lund
Looking at one of his entrancing paintings, Allen Lund from Old Towne Gallery has an amazing ability to transport you right into his paintings— feeling the soft wind, listening to the babble of a secluded mountain brook, or just getting lost in luminous color. He explains that his paintings are more about the emotional resonance of a place than representative of any specific site. A native of the Wasatch Mountains, Lund said, “Utah has the most beautiful and diverse landscape I’ve ever seen. Living here, I’m always thoroughly inspired.”
Exploring Mystery
Coda Gallery, Tracey Lane
At the Coda Gallery. Tracey Lane’s richly textured acrylic paintings have been called “a celebration of the mystery of nature, and the promise of complexitiv of life that exists in nature.” Lane explains that her works are not intended as literal interpretations of the landscape, but rather as symbols of life itself. “My paintings are about the experience of light and shadow, color and texture—the play between the seen and the unseen, between memory and imagination,” said Lane
Willie Holdman Photographs, Willie Holdman
“Just as people only reveal themselves on special occasions for those they know and trust, so too does the Earth save herself for those who respect her and are willing to make the sacrifice and hourney off the beaten path,” said Willie Holman, a Utah native who recently opened Park City’s newest gallery at 580 Main. Holdman first experienced the wonders of nature photography as a child when he accompanied his father on photo assignments for National Geographic. As they explored the country together, he formed and cemented his desire and talent to capture the true personality and character of Utah’s landscape.
Mountain Trails Gallery, Tal Walton
Tal Walton uses an interesting process to convey the profound mystery he portrays in his landscapes. Walton first paints in oil on a prepared marble ground already highlighted with gold leaf, which imparts a lovely luminosity to the pigments he overlays on its surface. He later adds sandpaper marks and scratches to the gesso surface to impart an aged appearance. “When people look at my work, I want the simplicity to draw them in and the underlying complexity to hold them there,” said Walton.
Terzain Galleries,. Marshall Notce
“After 25 years of image making I wonder if I live here because of the work I do, or if I do the work I do because I live here,” said Marshall Notce, Terzian Galleries artist. His oils and pastels are filled with bold, vibrant color bursting with intense energy and emotion. Noice shares his inspiration, “The West—its mountains, wildlife, glaciers, horses—it’s Remington and Russell—it’s big sky country. ” Choosing the perfect spot seems to come naturally for Noice,” It’s hard for me to say exactly why one location inspires me to paint and another equal beautiful location is easily passed by. It’s almost a magnetic attraction.”
Expressing Mood
Montgomery-Lee Fine Art, Joseph Alleman
Southwest Art magazine states it clearly when describing Joseph Alleman, an acclaimed watercolorist from Montgomery-Lee Fine Art, “…his paintings capture a powerful sense of mood and mystery that is ageless.” Working in both watercolor and oil, Alleman describes his vision, “There is a beauty within the everyday and ordinary that only painting can truly reveal. I’m drawn to those certain subjects in hopes of making and sharing amazing discoveries.”
Dancing Hands Gallery, Buzz Blodgett
Buzz Blodgett started creating art when his father built a glass furnace and introduced him to glassblowing in 1969. Finding inspiration in the beauty of the breaking waves in the northern San Diego beach town of Leucadia, Blodgett Glass produces an amazing selection of handcrafted, fine blown glass. Within these smooth, graceful and intricate pieces are some incredible adaptations of landscapes in a way not often seen. Blodgett’s work is the perfect example of how a true love and connection to the intrigue of landscapes can translate across all sorts of mediums.
District Gallery, Royden Card
“I learn from nature, hoping to capture some of that energy in paint,” said Royden Card. His medium is mainly acrylics, although he also creates remarkable woodcuts. Concentrating on the desert badlands of the Colorado Plateau, his paintings offer an intriguing way of capturing the changing moods of the desert. Card explains his artistic passion and provides a fitting description of his work, “The desert requires unique temperament and visionto appreciate its desolate beauty. It is rich in subtleties, sharp contrasts, wonders and dangers, and offers expansive solitude.”
Redstone Gallery, Hamilton Aguiar
The Brazilian artist, Hamilton Aguiar, constructs captivating compositions inspired by the changing seasons. Before arriving at his fascinating painting process, Aguiar spent many years studying art and working in art restoration. That experience led him to explore an unusual method of applying silver leaf over the entire surface of his canvases and then painting his dramatic images in oil. Intense and interesting, Aguiar’s work demonstrates an appealing and innovative approach to the landscape.
Sharing Inspirations
Thomas Anthony Gallery, Rolinda Stotts
Original. Stunning. Breathtaking. Broken. These are appropriate words to describe her series entitled“Bella Rotta” which translates from Italian to “beautiful broken.” Rolinda Stotts, an artist from the Thomas Anthony Gallery, shares, “I feel truly blessed to be able to express my experiences and share the intense emotion that is involved in creating.” Part of the intriguing appeal of Stotts’ landscapes involves a 10-step process whereby she creates her own canvases, applies layers upon numerous layers of luminous oils, actually breaks her work into pieces and then reapplies many more layers. The end result is an effect of extreme age, engaging texture, and a feeling that it just arrived from an old Italian art museum.
Fatali Gallery, Michael Fatali
When you take a look at one of Fatali’s passionate photographs, it’s truly the next closest thing to being there. He strongly believes in using only natural light without any sort of filters. Fatali explains, “To me, using nature’s light is the best way to express the wonders of natural phenomena.” Each photograph is produced by hand in a dark room using old optical processes, rather than newer digital technologies. He uses a rare silver-emulsion photographic paper known as Cibachrome that is not just museum archival, but designed to last for generations. Fatali sums up life and art poetically: “Each day is like a photograph, an unexposed sheet of film waits to record your mind and soul. Use vision to organize the composition of your life by exposing every sheet of film like it counts.”
