Tilt-a-Whirls in Liberty Park

36x48, acrylic on canvas, © 1969
Collection of the artist

As part of a watercolor class with George Dibble, the class went to Liberty Park (plein air) in Salt Lake City. There I did a watercolor which I liked and subsequently painted it in acrylic as an abstraction. It was framed with Luan boards attached directly to the frame.

An Abstraction for Love

48x36, acrylic on canvas, © 1969
Collection of the artist

I met a wonderful woman, Marge, who wanted a large painting for a new apartment that she was moving into on 7th East in Salt Lake City. I found a picture on the cover of a magazine and she liked it, so I painted a similar one for her. It is framed with Luan attached directly to the stretcher bars and then finished with Tung oil.

It was exhibited for over a year in a restaurant in Salt Lake City. In all the moves and inattention it became damaged, and I have since repaired it.

Izatt Cabin

24x36, acrylic on canvas, © 1969

Private Collection

It was painted "en plein air" (outside) and finished in the studio. Because of the size of the work and the environmental difficulties, I could not finish it in the field. That day I got a serious sunburn as a result of painting at the elevation and in the bright sun. When I applied the paint, it would dry almost immediately due to the heat and lack of humidity in Idaho. It is a painting of the homestead cabin of Charles Izatt in Gem Valley, Idaho.

City Creek Tree

18x24, oil on canvas, © 1969
Collection of the artist

A "plein air" piece painted in City Creek Canyon in Salt Lake City as part of a class excursion (it wasn't called plein air at the time; we just went outside to paint). It was painted the same time each morning over several sessions.

Home Phone

18x24, oil on panel, © 1969
Collection of the Artist

An assignment painting from art school. It was painted in the basement of my parents' home. I painted it as a statement of the slickness of the modern pop culture. I took off the dial on the phone and knobs on the amplifiers to emphasize the point. I had some difficulty with the perspective, but this seemed to enhance the feeling of the piece.

Still Life with Lamp

18x24, oil on canvas, 1969
Collection of the artist

The lamp and preserve jar belonged to my great grandmother, Ane Marie Madsen (survivor of the Willie Handcart Company, aged 10). I painted this in the basement of my parents' home as an art school assignment.

Horse Skull

18x24, oil on canvas, © 1969
Collection of the artist

This was an assignment to paint a still life in grisaille and then add color. I glazed the skull, bottle, and background. That worked fairly well, but the coffee pot and cup I couldn't get red enough and finally used an opaque red to complete the effect.

Grisaille: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grisaille

Pointillist Still Life

18x24, oil on canvas, © 1969
Collection of the artist

An experimental assignment in the same painting class using dots of colors and letting the eye mix them. I don't believe that I have the patience to do this type of painting as my dots were too large and the colors not close enough in value to mix well. Good exercise that I won't repeat soon.

Still life with bread

18x26, oil on canvas, © 1969
Collection of the artist

This painting was a set up in an oil painting class at the University of Utah. It was originally a larger work, but composition dictated that it be smaller, and so I made it smaller. It is a fair representation of the setup, but the gray does not work well for an artistic painting.