Painting Mount Olympus - No Easy Task for Mere Mortals

By Donna Poulton

Artist: Mark Knudsen, 2010.  Credit: Private Collection and courtesy of Mark Knudsen

Mount Olympus is not the tallest mountain in the Wasatch Range, but anyone who has seen this natural wonder will agree with the early pioneers who bestowed upon it the Greek name for ‘the home of the gods.’  Mount Olympus acts as an anchor in the Salt Lake Valley, an unchanging reference point locating residents both in their environment and their history.

Artist: Gilbert Munger, 1877.  Credit: Springville Museum of Art

Settling in its shadow, early pioneers recognized the mountain’s importance as source of water in a dry land and for the abundant timber that cloaked the lower reaches of the massive granite façade.  For those who worked with their hands, the gods of Mount Olympus offered up rich rewards.  But it was when the pioneers put away their plows and saws and picked up pencils and paintbrushes that the true majesty of Mount Olympus came to light.  For the past century and a half, some of America’s greatest artists have attempted to do justice to Mount Olympus…not an easy task for mere mortals.

Artist: James T. Harwood, 1938. Credit: Corporate Collection of Snow, Christensen & Martineau

Artist: Edwin Deakin, 1883. Credit: Private Collection

Artist: David Miekle, 2003. Credit: David Meikle

Artist: Victor LeCheminant, 1950s. Credit: Doug LeCheminant

Artist: Linda Curley Christensen, 2010. Credit: Linda Curley

Artist: Rob Colvin, 2009.  Credit: Rob Colvin

Artist: Leslie Thomas, 2010.  Credit: Leslie Thomas

Artist: Edward Maryon, 1988.  Credit: Corporate Collection of Mt. Olympus Waters

Painting of the Day, December 9, 2011

By Donna Poulton

"Winter is lovely to paint because…you’ve got a beautiful harmony of color relationships—the lavenders in the road. Every note of color has a relationship." - LeConte Stewart

LeConte Stewart once said he “would rather paint then eat.” He was one of Utah’s most important regional artists because of his style and because he concentrated on a narrow valley hugging the foothills of the Wasatch mountains. For more than seventy-five years he painted the urban and rural landscape of northern Utah. Preferring the outdoors to the studio, he could often be seen at the side of a road or out in a field sketching or painting. People knew that if he didn’t acknowledge you when you walked by, he didn’t want to be bothered, but if he said hello, it was a signal that he welcomed the company.

LeConte Stewart (1890-1991), Untitled, c. 1949, oil, location unknown

For more information on Stewart you might be interested in this post about a current exhibition of his work.

Image of the Day, December 8, 2011

By Donna Poulton

"I have in many places departed form the severe ascetic style ... Under ordinary circumstances, the ascetic discipline is necessary. Give the imagination an inch, and it is apt to take an ell, and the fundamental requirement of scientific method - accuracy of statement - is imperiled. But in the Grand Canyon district there is no such danger. The stimulants which are demoralizing elsewhere are necessary here to exalt the mind sufficiently to comprehend the sublimity of the subjects. Their sublimity has in fact been hitherto underrated." - Clarence Dutton

William Henry Holmes was employed by Clarence Dutton as a cartographer and sketch artist for his U. S. Geological Survey of the Grand Canyon District. This is a chromolithograph based on a sketch made by Holmes during his visits to the Grand Canyon District, which included Zion National Park.

Credit: Utah’s Canyons and Deserts

William Henry Holmes, Smithsonian Butte—Valley of the Virgen [sic], chromolitograph based on a sketch for Clarence Edward Dutton’s The Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District, delivered to Congress in 1881. 

Painting of the Day, December 6, 2011

I see the world in terms of a balance between cosmos and chaos. Painting for me is the process of continually seeking, and attempting to work out, that balance. I don't feel it necessary for viewers to "know" my personal symbols in order to feel that my work -- if it is successful in blending chaos and cosmos into a beautiful whole -- has a spiritual base.  – Clay Wagstaff

Credit: Clay Wagstaff

Clay Wagstaff, Somewhere Between Here and There, c. 2005, oil on panel 36 x 36, private collection.

Painting of the Day, December 5, 2011

By Donna Poulton

"It is not a country of light on things. It is a country of things in light." – Marsden Hartley

Modernist artist Marsden Hartley painted this still life of the New Mexico landscape glimpsed through his window in 1919. Reference to the land and its people can be seen centered in the composition. The blooming cactus, growing in a Santa Clara pot, sits atop an American Indian blanket on the table. This painting, estimated to sell at between  $7-$900,000, sold for a staggering $3,218,500 at a recent Sotheby’s Auction.

Credit ArtFixDaily.com

Marsden Hartley, Untitled (Still Life), 1919, oil on board, 32 x 28 in.