Member Portfolios
Mary Adams
Mary graduated from BYU with Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and an Art Minor. She paints familial art with universal meaning. Her beautiful sensitive lines and simplified form directs focus on the deep love between family members. She desires to strengthen her family and families throughout the world. She understands the importance of family as the fundamental unit of society. Her art reminds and invites all to COME HOME.
Mary lives in Provo Utah with her husband and enjoys visits with her family and creating art inspired by them!
Rob Allen
I love exploring the world God has created around us, its trails, backroads, and rivers. Each glimpse fills my soul with a unique combination of sky, rock, water, soil, and flora. Sharing the views with others adds a rich layer to each experience whether it is seen for the first time or the fiftieth. Capturing the visions in light, color, and texture distills them into something that is readily shared. My adventures guide my art, and my art shapes my vision.
I trained as an industrial designer a few decades ago, then worked for several years doing illustration and graphic design and eventually transitioned to animation. For the last couple of decades I have taught and directed animators at BYU. I always thought that when I retired I would step away from digital tools and go back to something more traditional. At some point I figured out that there was no good reason to wait so here we go!,
Jerry Anderson
Darren Atkinson
Darren’s childhood in central Arizona shaped his love for exploration amidst the desert landscapes. While his father was the head librarian at a local college, Darren immersed himself in books on art—captivated by various mediums. While feeling a lack of drawing talent, he found solace in a photography career. After training in commercial photography and assisting a fashion photographer, Darren’s interest shifted towards photojournalism. Returning to central Arizona, he worked in a local newspaper’s darkroom while attending college.
He felt a need for military service and after four years in the Marine Corps, Darren settled in Springville, Utah, where he balanced construction employment with photography work. He delved into painting abstract pieces in acrylic, thus avoiding his perceived limitation in drawing. During 2020–2021, Darren’s passion for painting deepened, so he took an oil painting class and discovered a fascination with Impressionism. Now, he combines his love for painting and photography by recreating his photographic subjects in oil and exploring plein-air painting. This creative fusion serves as a powerful outlet for Darren, and he is eager to share his art with all who appreciate it.
Grace Atkinson
In 2021, a gifted colored-pencil set awakened my love of drawing. I now work exclusively in this medium, but I’m looking into pastels as well. Art is a space for connection, and it’s been very fun creating visual art alongside my husband, who is an oil painter. Animals are my favorite subject matter—especially birds!
Richard Beckstrand
Richard uses pen and ink, crayon, sometimes mixed media on paper. He sees the world in shapes where people travel, letting them get their own interpretations.
Betty Benson
Betty was born and raised in Payson Utah. She married her high school sweetheart, Lynn Benson, 50 years ago and now resides in Spring Lake, Utah. She has four children, 16 grandchildren and one great granddaughter.
Her art training started in high school and continued gradually as she took adult education classes in oil, pastels, watercolor, colored pencil, and stained glass. She has studied with Jolynn Forman, Kim Anderson, Rebecca Peery, and Josh Clare.
“I want others to enjoy the splendor of Spring Lake and surrounding Utah areas though my paintings.”
Scott bevan
My love of drawing was refined at Art Center College of Design, where I graduated in industrial design in 1979, and expanded throughout my career as an environmental branding and graphic designer. In the past few years I have been smitten with landscape painting in the traditional medium of oils.
Linda Bowen
I make art to inspire and make us ponder nature and creation. The world needs positive and uplifting art that provides hope and light. Art, for me, is therapy—fun, hard work, and long hours; but it’s amazing to watch a two-dimensional interpretation of reality suddenly become a three-dimensional illusion, through contrasts of value and color.
My inspiration for paintings comes from animals and nature and the amazing color combinations from sea life, birds, landscape, and as I read the scriptures.
Cassi Breck
As an artist, Cassi Breck draws inspiration from her upbringing in Utah and life in Eagle Mountain with her family. Her passion for art has been a constant throughout her life, and she has honed her skills over the years to create meaningful portraits of loved ones for her patrons. Cassi’s versatility as an artist is evident in her ability to work with a range of mediums. Whether it’s graphite, acrylic, or digital paintings, she approaches each project with the same level of dedication and creativity. Cassi seeks to capture the essence of her subjects, portraying their unique personalities and characteristics in a way that resonates with the viewer.
Overall, Cassi’s art is a reflection of her love for creativity and her desire to connect with others through her work. She sees art as a way to tell stories and capture moments in time, and she feels grateful to have the opportunity to share her talents with others.
Bill brown
Through the creative processes of my mind’s eye and a vivid imagination, I am able to set to canvas those images of the red rock country of Southern Utah. I love to use the brilliant colors of the landscape with the colors of my pallet to increase the intensity of the scene I am painting. My paintings seem to speak to me in soft hushed tones, as if to say: “I am but a small part of a larger creation made for the enjoyment of us all.”
Marilyn Brown
Although novelist Marilyn Brown’s major occupation has been writing and publishing; her art classes at BYU and her experience painting with her husband, Bill, have inspired her to complete and show her paintings in the Covey Center, the Utah County Building, and the Spring Salon of the Springville Art Museum. Her studio work has been mostly in acrylic, but she enjoys doing plein air landscapes in oil.
Kathy Bruner
As an artist, I have a deep-rooted connection to the world of art that began in my childhood. Accompanying my mother to her first art class at the age of eight, I was fortunate enough to learn from some of Utah’s prominent artists. This experience, coupled with my art program at BYU and years of painting, helped to lay the foundation for my passion for the creative process. However, life often took me down a different path, and I was forced to put my art aside in order to support my family. But now, after many years, I feel a strong pull back to the world of art and am determined to rediscover and improve upon what was lost. With God’s guidance, I am reclaiming my artistic identity and striving to become a better artist.
Ellen Buchert
Ellen grew up in rural New Jersey farm country and was influenced by her artist parents. She was taught ecology by a friend, the county farm agent; hence her interests in art and natural history. When her sense of wonder bubbles over, some form of art emerges from her efforts to correlate knowledge, feelings, and to make sense of her world. It is her way of telling her discovery to others.
Now a resident of Utah County, she is excited by the beauty that surrounds her here and the art-friendly atmosphere.
Bonnee Byrne
At a time when we must show we care from a distance, Bonnee Byrne is eagerly painting with much needed love. Bonnee was the friendly lady who painted signs and windows at Provo Maceys, drew caricatures at local city festivals and painted missionary banners for many years throughout Utah Valley. Each of her creations was simply signed: “by Bonnee”.
Meli Calkins
Meli Calkins has been painting with soft pastels for the past 30 plus years. Her mother worked as a commercial artist and taught Meli how to observe what she saw in her world and would interpret it with drawings and paintings on paper and canvas. Of all the types of media that she has had an opportunity to work with, her first love was and always has been painting with soft pastels.
Jean Clay
I love watercolor, acrylic, markers, and crayons… I’m trying pastels now and quite like it. My paintings are colorful and fanciful… surprised? I’m allergic to realism.
Laurie Clegg
Laurie L. Clegg is a native of Provo and earned a BFA in painting from BYU (1990). After a detour into Interior Design and raising a family she is excited about getting back to her love of painting water color, oil, and acrylic.
“My work is inspired by the richness of nature, plus the touch of human hands on landscapes around us. My wish is to imbue my work with a sense of the familiar… places we love, or places we have never been—but long to love. Fascination with color, shape, texture, and pattern inspire me to paint my ideas with brush and knife onto paper, canvas, or board.”
Carole Cottam
Painting was never on my radar, but a friend talked me into taking a Minwah art class. Minwah is an ancient Korean style of art. I was only able to take six lessons and from those lessons I fell in love with watercolor painting and was inspired to be creative and push the boundaries of my art.
Floyd Cottam
I often think about what created my desire and love of art. I learned early that most of the things I accumulated seem to simply rust away or even disappear as life goes on. But not my artwork. My artwork remains lasting and meaningful to my life. I get my inspiration for painting from amazing old buildings and beautiful natural landscapes.
Marcia Coy
Marcia has always been interested in art and the creative process. She started taking classes later in life graduating with three degrees (Art, Art History, and Studio Art) from Sierra Community College, Rocklin, California. She then majored in studio art while attending Sacramento State University. She moved to Utah with the intent of helping children develop artistic abilities, understanding, and appreciation of the arts.
She works in many styles—realistic, representational and non-representational abstract, and figural. She uses a variety of mediums and enjoys experimenting with painting mediums, techniques, and supports with her favorite medium being watercolor on paper.
Rosemarie Dunn
I am a self taught artist and stay at home mom living in Utah. I grew up with a love of art inspired by my father who worked doing layouts for Rolling Stone Magazine in its early stages in San Francisco. I love animation and fantasy especially when it blurs the lines between real and imaginary. When I was young I had dreams of working for Disney, but life had different plans. So, four kids and two children’s books later, I am doing art in the evenings, usually after my kids go to bed.
Natalie Dutson
Natalie graduated with a BFA in Illustration from BYU in 1988. After a long hiatus, she is rediscovering her love of art, especially watercolor. She enjoys painting the figure in sports and dance, as well as the occasional family pet. She likes intense color and the feeling of spirit and movement in her subjects.
Dawn Durantos
After years in a high stress job environment Dawn embarked on a healing journey that led her to finding fulfillment in work as an emotional behavior and release therapist for animals and to rediscovering her early passion for art and drawing. Once she picked up a canvas and started painting, she experienced a joy that resonated deeply with her and with loved ones. Recognizing this as her true calling, she pursued advanced training through the Milan Art Institute Mastery Program that refined her technique and solidified her unique style. Her dedication has resulted in numerous award-winning paintings—showcased in exhibits and galleries throughout Utah.
Infusing her artwork with her healing gifts, Dawn creates pieces that hold spiritual and personal meaning, connecting deeply with both the subject and clients. Her collectors eagerly await each new creation, captivated by the soulful energy she brings to her work.
Dennis Erekson
Dennis, a very visual person, started drawing horses, airplanes, cars, and cartoons when he was young. As he matured, he moved on to objects, buildings, people, and nature—always striving to show the beauty, emotions, and messages they convey to him. He enjoys drawing and painting people caught in a moment of happiness while embracing the challenge of portraying the emotion, feeling, and movement of a special event. He is now expanding his art to show emotion and movement in nature scenes.
Nick Ericksen
“What I see is the culmination of all that I have seen. As a result, there is a filter that I place between the scene and the viewer—a painting. It becomes a unique interpretation of my observation, ability, and sensitivity to the person, place, or thing. In rendering an observation I am stricken that objects are most beautiful ephemerally at a specific moment in time.”
Grace Emery Fadely
As I navigate my artistic journey, I strive to connect with others through meaningful, thought-provoking art that captures the essence of the human experience in small, intimate moments. As a female artist, I endeavor to foster dialogues about gender, identity, mental health, and self-worth, promoting a deeper sense of beauty and acceptance. Through satire, I challenge conventions and stereotypes, inviting viewers to embrace shared laughter as a vital element of intimacy.
I’m planning to be a high-school art teacher, and I desire to connect with and support students in their exploration of their realities so they can express them through art processes.
Jolynn Forman
I have always enjoyed creating whether it was a tower made out of junk as a child to the best treehouse on the block as an adult. Art gives me that chance to create something meaningful; something that can touch another person’s soul. I especially enjoy combining up two wonderful styles of art, abstract and realism, into a new way that uses the best of both. Abstract’s emotional freedom combined with realism’s narrative aspects together form a new way to look at things and find new beauty in something that has been depicted again and again in the traditional ways.
Ron Garrett
Ron’s love and passion includes art, painting, art history, the Bauhaus, old sports cars, classic wooden boats, historic and contemporary homes. Ron admires work of Frank Lloyd Wright, David Carson, Braque, and Pablo Picasso.
Ron attended college at California State University San Bernardino and received his Bachelor Arts degree in graphic design and minored in fine arts, marketing and photography.
Ron has been designing for the past forty years, has lived on both the West and East Coast. He has been married for thirty-four years to his wife Marlo and is the father of six children. One day he would like to own a Frank Lloyd Wright home.
Randal Gibb
I have dabbled in art all my life with only minimal art training in college in the 1960’s. I have not actively painted for over 45 years while active in my medical practice. After retiring in 2022 I have taken up painting as an amateur, which was interrupted for 18 months while my wife and I served a mission in West Africa.
Jeanne Gomm
Stained glass, to me, is a creative outlet, a brush with history, an emerging talent, an opportunity to encourage others to create something beautiful and hopefully, a way to support my family doing something I love. A stained glass window illuminates the artist’s design with the assistance of light. Our experiences illuminate our lives with the assistance of love.
Mary Jane Grow
More than anything, Mary is an artist who loves nature. She finds that Impressionist techniques such as color theory, application of paint with a palette knife, and large brushwork helps her best describe changing moods and light. The entire process of being drawn in by a subject and exploring its essence and variety is important to her. She continues to study different theories and techniques so that her work can be progressive. Her art often communicates a quiet, peaceful mood while showing off her confident brushwork and bold use of color.
Being equally proficient in oil and watercolor, Mary knows which medium is appropriate for different subjects. In her oils she lays down one color next to another putting her artwork together much like a puzzle. With watercolor, she uses a wet-on-wet approach that fuzzes out edges and brings the center of interest gradually into focus. The lack of hard lines in her watercolor paintings demonstrate her mastery of wet-on-wet to portray foliage. Mary avoids painting with black and brown, instead she uses a variety of saturated colors to portray the natural world as alive and growing.
Günther Haidenthaller
Being Austrian, I am haunted by the ethereal, dreamlike quality of light in the moisture-laden European atmosphere. I strive to express that longing in every image I create, and hope that the viewer will feel my vision. Art is about passion, and this is mine. I never want to lose the childlike sense of wonder I still experience as an adult. The drama of a storm-tossed sea or sky, the rich glow of colors after a rain, the interplay of light and shadow, the contrast of warm to cool, the thunderous power of a waterfall and the hush of the dawn. Who didn’t love playing with crayons and paint, traveling to all sorts of magical, fantastical realms in our minds when we were kids? I believe the only thing which sets humans apart from the animals is our ability to visualize, imagine, fantasize, to create. That gift comes from Him who is literally the Father of our spirits, the Supreme Creator Himself. Life is all about contrasts, and the balance and beauty inherent in that is what I strive to express with my art.
Doug Hamilton
My work in sculpture and painting should be called extraction rather than abstraction. I extract little bits of what I see or experience and then look for their elemental relationships. Visual expression is pared down to a form or a geometry that simplifies those relationships and their tensions. This whole process is similar to channeling poetic expression into the sonnet form. There is an order in this geometric abstraction that seems to drive me.
Doug Hamilton is a native of Illinois and was a Texan from 1971 to 2012. He now practices in Springville, Utah.
Beverly Hansen
Jess Hansen
Jess Hansen believes that all emotions can be expressed through the creatures of this earth, and her art captures the souls of the animals she depicts. Jess graduated from the Art Instruction School in Minneapolis, MN in April 2011. Since then she has won a number of awards for her wildlife art in pastel, India painted ink, oil painting, and digital artwork. She is a member of the exclusive international wildlife artist group Artists for Conservation. She continues to broaden her artistic talents in several different mediums to further express imaginative animal souls.
Julia Hansen
Julia Hansen’s passion is to accurately portray the individual personalities of animals and loves illustrating exotic creatures. She has been doing fine art for over fifteen years and has endeavored to perfect the technique of creating realism using pastels and oil painting. The fur, poses, and kinds of animals she depicts make one want to reach out and touch them. Julia received a bachelor’s degree from Utah Valley University in the dual major of Art History and History and has nearly completed a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in Museum Studies with an added Digital Curation certificate. Her goal is to work as a curator to preserve art for future generations.
Kaylynn Hexem
Kaylynn encountered a Pointillism piece in pre-adolescence. Needless to say, it rocked her world. Stirring her heart aglow, sauntering past the multichromatic piece enlivened Kaylynn. Enticing her to be more inquisitive about foreign ideas—visualizations bound to materialize. ˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗
Deliberate in varying mediums, interdisciplinary avenues pull her into a serene sanctuary. Delicate handling, regarding esoteric dealings, deepens her innate love for the arts increasingly with each passing day.
Wendy Jacobs
Wendy Jacobs graduated with a BA from BYU. She has served on the Lehi City Art Committee and is a member of the Utah Valley Artists Guild. Wendy likes to be involved in the local art shows and festivals, where she has won many awards for her oil paintings. While she has added sculpting to her list of artworks, her favorite medium continues to be oil.
Rachel Jensen
After a 15-year hiatus from art, Rachel signed up for an art class, and it awoke something in her that she had forgotten was there—the love of creating. Over the past 11+ years she has taken classes, tried new mediums, and found that she especially loves soft pastel and colored pencil. She enjoys painting nature, landscapes, and portraits. Rachel also loves creating art that tells a story or has symbolic meanings. Her art is how she shares the beauty that she sees in the people and in the world around her.
Laurel Kay
Laurel enjoys learning and started really focusing on her art about a year after retirement. Largely self taught, her practice includes her love of landscape and portraiture.
Rick Kinateder
Rick Kinateder loves to search out inspirational, intense, low light evening scenes. Naturally, considering his architectural rendering background, he is also drawn to buildings whether they are rural, cityscapes, historical or European settings. His eye for detail and knowledge of perspective help him to create realistic impressions of the scenes that excite him. His paintings come to life with abundant color and attention to contrast and shadows.
Barry King
Michael M. Kraniski
“Landscapes are static, and of little interest until the sky acts upon them. The sky sets the mood. It controls the color and light of the landscape, and provides a sense of movement to the painting.”
Michael took being an artist seriously when he received his first commission in his teens. After graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Art, one the nation’s leading art and design institutes, Michael pursued a successful design career, winning numerous awards in both the U.S. and Europe.
He has returned to his original passion, the fine arts.
Michael attacks the canvas with large brushes, and moves quickly across the canvas to develop the sky before adding the landscape. Although much of Michael’s works are “Skyscape” paintings, he is also known for his abstract paintings, and for his use of a strong color palette. His process for doing this style of painting is experimental. He pokes around a bit without a preconceived notion of what the outcome will be. It is always a surprise to him.
Cindy Lee
Cindy graduated from Brigham Young University with a Masters in Social Work and a career in mental health. Although she had a yearning to be an artist, she was sure that she wasn’t born with the artist gene, so it was beyond her reach.
One day as Cindy was providing therapy, she was telling a client that just because you have a thought doesn’t make it true. A light went off in her head that maybe her belief that she could only draw a stick figure was nothing more than an inaccurate thought that she had believed for years. Her journey to become an artist started that very day as she challenged her insecurities to discover the artist within.
Now 12 years later she enjoys oil paintings that invite the viewer to insert their own story into the painting. She loves to paint flowers, landscapes, animals, and people—in short she loves it all.
Lina Miotta
Teacher and professional artist. Specializing in acrylic/oil on canvas, and drawing.
Lina Miotta has been an art teacher for over 20 years and is now an established International artist. Her paintings have been exhibited in various states of Brazil, as well as in Italy, Portugal, France, United States, Germany, Spain, Argentina, and Belgium. Lina Miotta has won numerous National and International art prizes, and has had her works published in National and International art magazines. Besides teaching and painting, Lina enjoys being a grandma and spending time with family and nature.
Jon Montoya
Growing up in the west, I have a fondness for expansive views into the landscape. I like to paint on large canvases in acrylics with splashes and gesture brushwork. Some of my paintings have the guiding lines that my drafting-trained mind likes to impose, but later the Muse takes over and this is when everything seems to sparkle. I try to let the landscape/ space or object speak to me. I am drawn to most things Americana, especially when it comes to the railroad.
Jan Munger
I have done photography for many years and am fairly confident in my abilities, but painting is uncharted territory…new, exciting, and sometimes frustrating. Three years ago my daughter pushed me to sit down and paint with her, and despite my repeated protests that I don’t know how to paint, I sat down…I’ve been painting ever since.
Up until recently, I have been content to just create whatever random abstract markings came out of me, with no concern to technique, rules, learning, etc., I would just put paint on a canvas and see where it led…it’s been a very personal journey. Now I am trying to be more intentional. I work in acrylic paints and acrylic ink. My influences come from a life rich with experiences…arts, literature, music, friends, family, travel, struggle, loss…it’s all there inside of me, informing my choices with shape and color and emotion. Most of what I create is non-objective abstract with a touch of whimsy.
I’m here to share, but more importantly to learn and hopefully grow.
Rick Nye
Rick, a highly-acclaimed professional photographer, captures nature’s most exquisite beauty. After his tour with the U.S. Army in Vietnam as an infantry soldier, Rick returned to BYU where he received a Master’s Degree in Communications and Visual Arts. He then taught in BYU’s Photography Department.
Rick now owns Rick Nye Photography in Orem, Utah. Kodak twice awarded him with the Kodak Gallery Award for Photographic Excellence, and he has been published in the Professional Photographer’s of America Magazine. The Florida Epcot Center accepted his photos to hang in the Epcot Center Art Museum.
Rick works with light control, camera and lens settings, composition, print presentation, and patience—these elements must work in harmony to produce a quality piece of art.
Sue Parkinson
Susan Parkinson delights in bringing the outdoors indoors. Her hope is to dramatize the ordinary in nature—things that you might pass by unnoticed when walking or driving—bringing these simple but intimate images into your living spaces to make your walls come to life. She knows that paintings set a mood in a room; and they touch us even when we’re not totally aware of them or their extraordinary significance in our lives.
Linda Paulsen
Linda G. Paulsen paints in watercolor, acrylic, oil and pastel. Her poetic photo realism is especially poignant in her portraits of children, western landscapes, and European images. Linda believes art should edify, and reminds the viewer that beauty is not optional. She sees the hand of Providence everywhere, and attempts to share that vision through art. Linda has had little formal art education, but has taken various workshops and classes which have helped her to refine her skills. She has a degree in English from Brigham Young University.
Rebecca Peery
Rebecca Lee Peery was born in Holy City, California. Since childhood, she dreamed of being an artist, and by seventeen she began painting in oil. She studied art at Utah Technical College and UVU. She has taken workshops from renowned artists and has learned a great deal by painting with Linda Curley Christensen on several LDS Temple Murals. Rebecca has enjoyed teaching oil painting classes in the public school system as well as private instruction in her home studio. She currently enjoys teaching painting at the Payson Senior Citizen Center.
Rebecca served in various capacities in the Intermountain Society of Artists, Provo Art Board, and Utah Valley Artist Guild (as President). Currently, she is the President of the Peteetneet Art Council in Payson, Utah.
Receiving much of her artistic inspiration from traveling the world, she uses these experiences beautifully in her paintings. Her art has been displayed in many public venues and exhibitions. She says, “I have been blessed to see God’s beautiful creation through an artist’s eye. My hope is that I am able to convey that beauty to the viewer—not only visually but spiritually.”
Ann Petersen
Ann is exceptionally accomplished in oils and encaustic, abstract art. Originating from Ireland with access to the ocean, it is something she never has taken for granted. Now she is drawn to the flow of all types of water—oceans, seas, and lakes. The color schemes may have begun with the colors of the ocean or memory, and then they become colliding colors. Being an abstract for her allows the feeling of a body of water ebbing and flowing perhaps in a faraway, warm climate. The soft and the wispy shapes meld together for a pleasing piece. The colors, shapes, and designs are always pleasing to her, so feel free to find what you can see.
All her work is open for interpretation, maybe finding your way, through emotional troubles, or just enjoying your journey in life. If the piece resonates with you, you may indeed see much more that has a meaning for you personally.
Bill Petersen
Being from Utah, Bill started drawing at an early age and unknowingly gleaned his mother’s oil artistry as he ran past her studio to play outside. Bill is a self-taught landscape/seascape and portrait artist who began working with oil’s in September 2020 “at the urging of Ann” (his soul mate).
Both Bill and Ann currently reside in Utah creating Gallery Art for a Home and or office décor. Bill earned several commissions while living in Ireland, and he has sold paintings in Utah and is from Utah.
Ondre Pettingill
Ondre has realized that one can find beauty in nature even in a blinding snowstorm where all the colors of nature seem to have the same color and values. He has learned to look closer at the details of nature and find things that are not usually observed. When Ondre paints there is an order of things that must be there for his paintings to be successful: Interesting Flowing Composition, Colors that work in Harmony, Value Scale Range, Aesthetic Beauty, Variety of varied realistic and abstract Shapes. Ondre believes it is important to be at one in nature in an outdoor—plein air—environment to see all things up close and personal. I have a burning desire to make each of my paintings better than the last by observing my subject matter and techniques closer during the process as I continue my artistic journey.
Rachel Rehm
I’ve always been interested in art. I studied it as much as I could in middle school and high school, and while at BYU, I was pursued a BFA, which ended when I stopped due to lack of babysitters. I returned later and completed my degree in family sciences receiving a Bachelor of General Studies.
Art for me is about inspiration. When it strikes, I find the best medium and techniques to give it life. As a result, I’ve have learned various techniques and styles to be able to bring each piece to fruition.
Lovetta reyes-cairo
Lovetta Reyes-Cairo grew up in an artistic family and has spent countless wonderful hours doing art. She graduated from Brigham Young University and also studied at an independent art school, Beaux-Arts Academy. For Lovetta, art heals and allows for exploration and expression of feelings as few other things can. She wants to share that with others. Her work is both personal and universal, often featuring the human figure and exploring ideas of spirituality, healing, balance, beauty, and love.
Jennifer Richter
Jennifer has been a practicing artist her whole life—beginning with colorful scribbles and evolving into a more coherent style. She creates because it is challenging, rejuvenating, and rewarding. She loves to encourage others to develop their skills and style. Her passion is doing the work, teaching others, and improving alongside her students. STAND, LIFT, RISE is her motto, and BE A PRACTICING ARTIST is her mantra.
Her art has been exhibited in the Springville Art Museum, Logan Fine Art Gallery, Repartee Art Gallery, Lamplight Art Gallery, Sandy Arts Guild, Utah Valley Artist Guild, Utah State Fair, and the Bountiful Davis Arts Center.
Megan Rieker
Megan Rieker grew up in Maryland in a family of 8. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in General Fine Arts and a Masters’ Degree in Art Teaching from Maryland Institute, College of Art. She has lived in Germany, Korea, Italy, Washington DC and is currently residing in Pleasant Grove Utah
In 2000, Megan began the “Women of Inspiration” series, which includes women throughout LDS history as well as the ideals and values taught in the gospel. Her paintings have been featured in the Ensign, the Daughters of My Kingdom book, Church videos, museums, temple visitor’s centers, galleries and book covers.
Jonathan Shields
Jon is a lifelong doodler who found joy in putting pencil to paper and creating art. Although he had limited formal art training, he always had a creative side. Over the years, he sent handmade cards to loved ones and developed a unique talent for creating art using people’s names.
In 2009, Jon met artist Dan Cagle, who introduced him to a captivating technique using insulation foam as a canvas for acrylics. This method blends sculpture and painting in a striking way. Jon’s process involves sketching an image on polystyrene, carving it with a soldering iron, and painting it with acrylics. His art is a fusion of traditional and contemporary techniques, inviting viewers to explore his imaginative world on foam canvases.
Tom Spalding
Before retirement, Tom’s painting was a relaxing time as he would daydream about becoming a painter after retirement—that sounds familiar. So now he is like many of us, an improving painter who is in search of a style.
“It’s your road, and yours alone, others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.” —Rumi
Maurine Thulin
Born on the north east coast of England during World War II. Right from childhood Maureen was able to see beauty in the ocean, and green countryside of England. She won prizes for her patience in producing artwork with different mediums. At age twenty two years, she immigrated to America by herself, and settled near the beautiful mountains of Utah. The medium she has chosen to express her art, is called encaustic art. Maureen chose this form of art because of the vibrant colors,and the endless possibilities of forms and shapes. Her wild imagination was set free. Encaustic is a method of painting using hot wax infused with pigment.
Barbara Ward
Barbara Ward was born in a small rural town in Southern Alberta Canada. She spent her youth outdoors where her favorite activities were hiking, skiing, riding her crazy Arabian mare across the prairies, and swimming in the cold glacial Canadian lakes. Although she was passionate about art and drawing from an early age, her life took an interesting detour. Her husband, a UPS driver, was laid up for several months because of knee replacements. Because of this she was recruited as an Art Director in the commercial film world. She began to do architectural renderings, choose the paint colors, fabric, floor coverings , landscaping concepts , signage, faux painting, design work, props, and do the decorating and shopping. She was involved with feature films, commercials, industrial films, and episodic television for 29 years. This experience although it took away from her actual time pursuing the miles of canvas an artist is beholden to, gave her an opportunity to develop in color and design principles. Also what every artist needs to respond to, the ability to produce under deadlines and pressure. After an accident sidelined her film career, she began to seriously attack the canvas with her brushes.
Jeff Wells
In the act of painting, I seek to discover the highest representation of beauty—poetic and philosophical, which has been common in great masterworks. I have spent hours analyzing the finest masterpieces worldwide in an effort to decipher the meditative effect that distinguishes greatness from proficiency, and have made the creation of that essence my central goal as an artist. This path has led me to deeply study philosophy, design, linear perspective, anatomy, color, optics, architecture, botany, light, and atmosphere as they contribute to affect of an art piece, and I have built a harmonious foundation of principles to illuminate their meaning in paint.
As my subject, I have chosen common human experiences such as family values, spiritual enlightenment, and have sought to discard the sociopolitical factors of contemporary culture in favor of those enduring sentiments we encounter. I am a pure traditionalist. It is my belief that the only way to happiness is to experience the beauty of our existence in our magnificent surroundings. My intention as an artist is to share that beauty.
Sandra Whitby
Born and raised in Provo, Utah, Sandy does not remember a time when she was not painting or drawing. “Art has always been a part of my life, I always knew that was what I wanted to do.” After attending Brigham Young University and studying drawing, painting and design, she enjoyed a successful career in the commercial art field in Boston and Los Angeles. After returning to Provo to raise a family, a burning desire to return to her lifelong passion for painting led Sandy to study with well known artists through workshops and classes. Her creative spirit has been a determining factor in her life. Striving to capture that inexplicable “magic” in the subject matter that she paints is a fascinating and compelling force in her artwork. Sandy has traveled extensively around the world visiting museums for inspiration and to acquire and expand her knowledge.
D. Brent Young
DB grew up on a ranch in rural Utah where his parents taught the value of hard work and to respect nature. They thought he had artistic talent and encouraged him to develop it. Art classes in school were easy and fun, especially when he could draw or paint what he liked. In high school, an instructor suggested that he enter a drawing in a local art show—it took first place. That drawing was the last artwork he did for more than forty years. In life his outdoor hobbies led to buying a camera, and then into a full-blown obsession for landscape and wildlife photography. Time away in the wild provided relief from a stressful job and produced many award-winning photos. Photography brought him full circle to an interest in producing art and in the last few years, every photo he took was composed with the idea of painting from it.
Several years ago, he retired and began in earnest to paint. He is convinced that skills learned in photography have been useful in composing and producing art. His painting style is realism, especially when there is wildlife in the composition.
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