Light in the Canyon

11 x 14 Acrylic on Canvas Panel

Private collection

This painting has had an unusual life. I started it, let it ruminate, and then didn't like it; so I created texture on it and applied paint using a spatter technique, I used some luminous paint to create colors what came forward. I applied glazes and wiped them off so that the result was an augmented textural effect. I used a palette knife that allowed paint to catch where it would. Then the title was meant to be ambiguous as it could be anything the viewer wanted to see. I liked it and I took it to an exhibit where it sold. I loved the frame and felt that it gives a elegant quality to the piece.

The Ancestors

 9" x 12", acrylic on canvas panel © 2024
Collection of the artist

In 1864, Eric Øhlenschlæger and family settled in Fountain Green, Utah. He had three sons and two daughters (who died in Denmark). He died on 4 January 1865—it must have been a cold winter. His sons were Peder, Ludvig, and, my ancestor, Hans Peter. Two of the three adopted patronymic names of Ericksen and the third maintained the family name of  Øhlenschlæger (spelling was Americanized). His death in January made for difficult burial and he happened to have been buried outside of the official cemetery—he was buried in a dry creek bed. A flood came years later and washed the body away; there was no sign of the burial. As close as we can come to the site, it was the "bush" | "tree" which is the focal point of the painting. I contacted the city and found that there was no official record of the burial or the site. So he is immortalized in this painting and the photo that it was taken from.

Evening of Glory

 

10" x 8", acrylic on canvas board © 2023

Collection of the artist

A step outside when the sun is setting is often rewarded by a cliché. That means that you have seen them before, but sometimes it seems like the beauty gods have chosen something just for you. Now it has become piece that represents what you see at the end of the street in the "hood."

A Place Out of the Sun

11" x 14", acrylic on canvas panel, © 2023
Collection of the Artist

Returning home from central Utah, it was a hot summer's day, and to the side of the road was a respite from the heat—a hollow of sorts when the lowering sun was obscured and the blaze of the sun could still be seen.
    It was fun to paint as I recently used a new technique for me—a palette knife. I had purchased a new one in a recent workshop and had used it in another painting. In this painting, like the other one, the foliage of the trees was the issue. The knife had proven itself then; now could it do it again. It did, and the trees came to life in the afternoon sun.

Mountain Stream

11 x 14, Acrylic on canvas board, © 2023
Collection of the Artist

Exhibits are a source of motivation. Such is this painting of a stream in a nearby canyon. I finished it for an exhibit as I had been working on a more significant piece and hadn't a fresh smaller work of art to take. 
     I had taken a photograph a couple of years ago and its time had not come to be a painting. I had seen some painting with very blue water and wanted to experiment with that and the composition. It made it to the exhibit, and what will become of it now is for the future to determine.

 

North Creek Hollow: View from Mainstreet

 20x16, acrylic on linen canvas, © 2021

Collection of the Artist

When driving North down main street in Springville, look to the right as you approach 1400 N. You'll see a hollow in the mountain. This is apparent about where you see Subway on the left.  

    It's a cold day, and the clouds were down on the mountain with snow falling in spits and spirts and the clouds part and the sun hits the ridge and down in the hollow. It's beauty had to be interpreted in paint—here it is—a cold day on a Springville spring day.

Falls at Cayote Gulch

16x20 acrylic on canvas, © 2021

Private collection

My daughter's family are quite the explorers and hike to places that I may have once been able to do but time and legs preclude. She took this photo of the falls that spoke to me in a calming way. Lovely light and gentle water falling is the best of Zen. My wife loved the turquoise water that plays off the red of the sandstone.

Fires in the West

11x14 acrylic on canvas panel, © 2020

Collection of the Artist

We drove to Tooele, Utah on a warm summer's day for a barbeque in the back yard of my wife's nephew's home by the lake. There were lots of fires in the Western United States at the time and the sky was more atmospheric than usual. I saw this scene and immediately took a picture. Time is of the essence as the conditions can change, and you would not think of painting what came later. So with some cropping in PaintShop, here is my interpretation of that day and time—it became immediately one of my wife's favorite paintings and gave her peace and serenity every time she passed by it.

Lake's End

11" x 14" acrylic on canvas panel © 2020

Collection of the Artist

When on an outing around the bottom of Utah Lake, you have to always be aware of what is around you as you may find beauty everywhere. We lived on the prairie for 40 years, and when we returned to the mountains we came back to their comforting protection. There are those who feel that mountains are closing them in, but when you have grown up in the mountains, their height and strength liberate you as you return to them—you're home!

A Trail Less Taken

11x14 acrylic on canvas panel, © 2020

Private Collection

My wife and I took to the road one afternoon on the south side of Utah Lake. A road appeared that was not used much; it circled an area that is marshy when wet. The distant mountains and the smoke in the air from fires filled the atmospheric conditions with nostalgia—a wistful feeling of wanting to see where this road (as well as the one we were on) would take us.

    Some people in their lives find that they are on a path that is not usual for the time or the group. It is a difficult road to travel, but the benefits of the trip and the glory of what awaits makes us feel that a trail less traveled is a road that is fitted to our wants and desires.

 

Hope Over West Hills

16x20 acrylic on canvas, © 2020

Collection of the Artist

There was a heavy storm in Springville; it was dark and foreboding. There was a pandemic getting started. I had gone up the mountain and was coming down when the clouds parted and the sun broke through and everything was better. There is hope, and we can get through all of the craziness that is going on. A patch of blue and gold-lined clouds makes one think tomorrow will be better because it is good right now.

View from the Porch

16x20 Acrylic on canvas, © 2019

Collection of the Artist

We moved to Utah after a 40-year absence. Finding a house had become a problem—the housing market was off. We found a home in Springville, Utah; across the street was a vacant lot and beyond a vacant field and the mountains seemed to surround us. In the valley from time to time was a head of about 20 deer grazing and running to and fro. 

    One morning, after a stormy night, was a beautiful sunrise, and with the wet environment it deepened the saturation of the colors. The "ghost clouds" were down on the mountains and beauty abounded. As I walked out to check the weather for the day, this is what I saw from the porch, so I took a picture and thought that it would make a good painting. 

    It was a couple of years later and the valley turned into a sprawling middle school and my mind thought of what used to be. So I retrieved the picture that I had taken, cropped it, drew it, and painted—a view from the front porch.

Wardsworth Trail, Hobble Creek Canyon

 

20x16 acrylic on canvas, © 2019

Collection of the Artist

I painted this painting, with permission, from a friend's FaceBook post. I thought that it was a lovely scene and that I could interpret it well. I think that I did that, and I finished the painting and entered it in an exhibit. After two months of the exhibit I went to retrieve the painting and looked at the image with horror. It had straight RED lines in the work. What were they and why did they ruin my painting? 

    Well, when I started the work, I used an "archival" India Ink marker for the "square-up" lines. They really weren't squares but they were used for the same purpose. I believed archival to mean they would be inert. Big mistake, for the "India ink" interacted with the acrylic paint and turned red.

    My intent is to take alcohol and take the acrylic paint down to the gesso and then rebuild the layers of paint—maybe, maybe not—it's been a couple of years and it still has red lines. I don't think paint on top even with gesso would work. It would not be a pleasant task, so right now it is a reminder to use pastel or graphite to square up. I can't bring myself to discard it—I really, really like it.

View from the Window

 8" x 10" acrylic on canvas panel, © 2018

Collection of the Artist

This is a painting of the area where my instructor from college lived after I left Utah, and he had left the college. It is in the Hyrum Dam area. 

    I remember the significance of the area because when I was in pottery, the instructor had a slip that was called Hyrum Dam. She had dug up the clay to make the slip herself. That stuck with me; this moody painting reflects a distant past that cannot be visited again except in our memory.

Springville Strang House

12" x 12" oil on panel © 2017

Collection of the Artist

Nostalgia has a fascination as we can look at a scene, seeing how it was over 100 years before. Well, maybe that vision is only on the screen of our mind—at least until we put it in paint on a wooden panel. I have spoken before of taking a class and being productive. It was only once a week, and I had plenty of time to work on projects in between the class times. This was one such project. I had admired the home on 4th North in Springville and did some research as to the owner and construction, 1898. It stands as proud now as when it was new basking in the afternoon, fall light. It was fun to be carried back if only for a while to when there were not houses next door, and the street could be rutted by rain water and wagon wheels.

 

Fletcher Cosmos

 

11x16 acrylic on canvas, © 2016

Collection of the Artist

A family up the street was one of the first to come into our new home and meet with us. They became special friends. When they left the city for a warmer climate, I passed their house and the Cosmos were in bloom. This struck me as the Cosmos, a galactic flower, bloomed in array as if in the heavens. We too are orbiting in the Cosmos. Are we as beautiful as these—thank you, friends, for being in our universe if only for a little time.

Summer Poppies

10x8 acrylic on panel © 2014

Collection of the Artist

Driving down Center Street in Springville in the late summer afternoon, I had to stop. A house had poppies in bloom, and when the sun is just right the petals are luminously bright as if they were the source of the light. It was a quick stop, and now that we all carry a camera in our pocket, it was not hard work to capture a fleeting moment in time—memorialized in paint.

 

The Gap in Hobble Creek

11x14,  Acrylic on panel, © 2013
Collection of the Artist

We drove up Hobble Creek Canyon looking for a place to paint at a later time.  We were coming back down the canyon when the beauty of the moment was one that could not be ignored. We stopped and took a picture of the road and the gap.  It was not a place to set up an easel so I contented myself to paint it in the studio. What a beautiful place to live.

Hobble Creek Glow

11x14, Acrylic on panel, © 2013
Collection of the Artist

My wife and I went on a morning excursion up Hobble Creek Canyon—about five minutes from the house. French easel in hand I found a quiet spot not far from the road where I could observe the morning splendor and the sounds of nature.  Any day painting is a good day.

Spring Thaw

10x10 Acrylic on panel, © 2013
Collection of the Artist

We took a spring trip up Provo Canyon to a cabin above Sundance Ski Resort. Here we found a small stream fed by the spring melt. I took several photos of the last vestiges of snow as they filled the streams. A quiet, peaceful time walking in the brisk air enjoying the sounds of awakening.