Paintings

"I am pleased with a painting when it captures a sense of the place, including the light and mood of the day"
Ken Baxter is a prominent Utah plein air painter. His brushwork brings life to the rural Utah scenes and landscapes that he likes to paint. He creates a wonderful mood and atmosphere in his paintings with his constant awareness of the sunlight. Ken is a graduate of the Univeristy of Utah Art Department, where he was a student of Alvin Gittins. He has exhibited throughout the West and Europe and many of his paintings are in private, corporate and permanent museum collections.

Utah Plein Air artist, Doug Braithwaite, has been painting since he was old enough to hold a paintbrush. He pursued his love and talent for art and graduated from the University of Utah in 1991. Doug's bold brush strokes have been easily recognized by admirers and collectors. His work was well described in Southwest Art Magazine as "where realism meets abstraction". Doug was recently featured on the cover of PleinAir Magazine. He has participated in painting competitions across the country and has received dozens of awards.
Braithwaite, in talking about his work, says, "I love painting the things I see every day, cars, trucks, stop signs and people - creating a timestamp of what my life is like here and now".

"Paul Davis is a remarkable original painter. He has great sensitivity to conditions of light and a wonderful control of tonal values. This responsiveness to light is the painter's supreme gift."
--Andrew Forge

"My landscapes reflect a lifetime passion for the American West, especially Southern Utah. My choice of subject reflects my fascination with place - and the occasional out-of-place. I strive for the intimacy and particularity of a portrait, with a mood of tender and sometimes tenderly amused observation. "
Born in Salt Lake and completing her education at the University of Utah, Susu Knight has lived for many years in Santa Fe where she taught at St. John's College. She started her art studies in 1995. Her pastels have garnered prizes in a number of juried shows and have earned her Signature membership in the Pastel Society of America, the Pastel Society of New Mexico and the Plein Art Painters of New Mexico. She has been seen in IAPS sponsored shows, the Zion's Centennial, Paint the Parks and is in the permanent collection of the Butler Institute of American Art.

Lenka Konapasek teaches Art at the University of Utah. She grew up in Czech Republic, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing at the University of Utah, and received her Master of Fine Arts in Portland, Maine. Her work has been shown in Salt Lake City, Denver, Taiwan, Oregon, Prague and Torrey. Her paintings are colorful and distinctive.

Kathy Peterson is a versatile, talented painter. She works in water color, pastel and oil and has become known for her uniquely rendered landscapes, portraits and domestic art. It is obvious from her work that she is moved by the imagery in her own rural but architecturally rich environment.

Denis Phillips, a prominent and accomplished Utah artist, has boldly moved from his earlier representational landscapes to abstract landscapes and pure abstraction. His sense of color, composition and presentation generate an overwhelming appeal of his paintings. Sadly, Denis passed away earlier this year. With his wife, Bonnie, Denis owned Phillips Gallery in Salt Lake City. Their contribution to the quality of Utah art and  to the recognition of the importance of art in Utah has been outstanding.

Winner of the Arts For The Parks Grand Canyon Purchase Award.
Founding member Plein Air Painters of Utah.
Featured Artist Southwest Art Magazine January 2005
"Once you allow the West to seep into your soul and spirit, it leaves you changed."

I began painting outside, mainly in the mountains, due to my love of wilderness. The beauty, the peace, the energy of ever-transitory life; it gave me a desire to create and express greater than any other experience I have known.
We humans so often find ourselves wrapped up in convoluted dramas that at their basis need not exist. Our thoughts can so easily induce stress, negativity, depression, even paranoia. My connection to nature helps me, if not avoid such difficulties, to move through them so that I may retain my sanity and well being."

In spite of success as a commercial artist, Ress felt the pull of fine art ever since he first held a brush. He began with a focus on watercolor, a medium he still finds challenging and exciting. After gaining national acclaim as a watercolor artist, Ress added oils to his repertoire. “I find the contrast between the way one must handle the paint and brushes in oil versus watercolor stimulates me to more creative and expressive use of both media,” Ress says. Today he works comfortably in both media but always with a preference for landscape. He knows well, and loves the land and clear light of the American Southwest.

"Clearly, this man knows how to handle a brush - as well as the sticks and textured fabrics he employs to enliven his surfaces"
FINE ART CONNOISSEUR MAGAZINE Oct. 2006
Andrzej Skorut immigrated from Poland to Salt Lake City in 1987. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in The University of Utah's superb art department.

 

"A number of visionary artists impact the Utah art scene. Among the best is F. Anthony Smith, whose abstract-illusionist acrylics have recently given way to powerful oil landscapes."
--Southwest Art January 2002

"Doug Snow's ambience in Southern Utah with its deserts, mountains, and rock formations, holds a mammoth power. His paintings reflect that power. They are visionary explorations of air and light. They are a mystical mirror reflecting the unknown on the known. He sees so well. He feels with a perfect balance of heart and eye. In these works one understands Snow's deep response to nature's link to his nature."  

                                                                         Joseph Rafael