“Officer and Four Girls”

40 x 44 in.

Oil on Canvas

Ben Steele was born in 1977 in Kennewick, Washington, and graduated from University of Utah in 2002 with a BFA in painting and drawing, continuing his education at the Helper Art Workshops under the instruction of former University of Utah professors David Dornan and Paul Davis. The summer workshops led to a multi-year internship with Dornan and Steele relocated to Helper, Utah to begin his professional art career, exhibiting in galleries throughout the United States ever since. He continues to live and work in Helper, Utah.

Steele’s art is part of several notable collections, including the Raymond James Financial art collection, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, Academy Award Winning Producer Michael Sugar, the Executive Offices of the San Francisco Giants, golfer Fred Couples, and in multiple Delta Airline Sky Club lounges throughout the US.

Gallery Representation

ARDEN GALLERY
129 Newbury St.
Boston, MA  02116
www.ardengallery.com

CODA GALLERY PALM DESERT
73-151 El Paseo
Palm Desert, CA  92260
www.codagallery.com

GALLERY19
4839 N. Damen Ave.
Chicago, IL  60625
www.gallery19chicago.com

GIACOBBE FRITZ FINE ART
702 Canyon Road
Santa Fe, NM  87501
www.giacobbefritz.com

MODERN WEST FINE ART
177 East 200 South
Salt Lake City, UT  84111
www.modernwestfineart.com

TROVE GALLERY
804 Main Street
Park City, UT  84060
www.troveparkcity.com

“Tiger am Dschungelbach” c. 1910

Wilhelm Kuhnert (American, born Germany, 1865-1926)

25 x 42 3/4 in.

Oil on canvas

Collection of Joffa and Bill Kerr.

Jackson Collects: Wild Selections from Private Collections

Oct. 27, 2017 – Apr. 15, 2018

This exhibit brings in rarely seen work from private collections, giving visitors a sense of the amazing artwork in existence right here in our valley. Approximately 20 works are featured, including wildlife and landscape scenes. Complementing the borrowed artwork will be recent and promised gifts, which will help us talk about how the Museum builds its own collection. Works like the one pictured here will be featured.

Jackson Collects is generously sponsored by: Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, The Lightner Sams Foundation, Inc., Tally & Bill Mingst, Gloria & Bill Newton, Marieluise Hessel-Artzt & Edwin Artzt, and Betsy & Thomas Grainger.

View more about the exhibit at https://www.wildlifeart.org/exhibits/jackson-collects-wild-selections-from-private-collections/

“At One”

40 x 30 in.

Oil

Available through The Mission Gallery, St. George, UT

After moving to the US as a teenager, Jane Hunt received her degree in illustration from the Cleveland Institute of Art. For the last twenty years the oil painter has resided in Colorado, where she continues to be awed and inspired by the beauty surrounding her.

A sought after instructor, she is a Master Signature Member of Plein Air Painters of New Mexico, a Signature Member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, Women Artists of the West, Plein Air Artists of Colorado, and Outdoor Painters Society. She is also a member of the Salmagundi Club and serves on the Board of Oil Painters of America.

Hunt’s paintings have been exhibited in numerous museums and are represented by notable galleries in the US as well as her native England.

View more of Jane’s work at www.janehuntart.com

“Crescendo On The Marsh”

20 x 10 in.

Oil On Linen Panel

“For passions sake:” many times the best description for a painting subject matter. Especially when no words can describe the red-violet lace coming through the lavender front, all, literally speckled with…glory.  For passions sake, this Artist must paint. A photograph cannot see as the human eye – no matter how much the technology advances. And even though as an Artist one may only reflect a shadow of the divine before us, for the sake of the passion to do so – remains the purpose of the pursuit.

The more it is pursued – the more is the desire to grow this gift of an opportunity to reflect upon the beauty before us.  Saying ‘I can’t do it’ is not an option. How, how to do so is the endless quest.

Crescendo On The Marsh, began its inspiration as a 6×8 in. plein air study in the field.  Another painting had been started, and then the sky began to explode. Quickly then choosing to begin a new painting to attempt to take on all unfolding in the ever-changing scene. The beauty of plein air may give opportunity to capture the true color notes, yet often it is back in the studio that the subject takes on not only a grander scale, but accentuation of the details that sing out to be captured.

Crescendo On The Marsh will debut Wednesday, January 17th at Hughes Gallery, Inc. in Boca Grande, Florida. That date marks the opening of the group show at Karen’s newest representing gallery.

Karen Ann travels extensively several months a year pursuing her passion to paint.  Bringing her travels back into her working art studio, Karen Ann Hitt – An Original Hitt Fine Art & Atelier, in the historic district of Venice Florida, where many of the plein air paintings inspire studio works.

View more of Karen’s work at www.AnOriginalHitt.com

Contact Karen at [email protected]

Published: Fine Art Connoisseur magazine May/June 2016; PleinAir magazine October/November 2017, June/July 2017, October/November 2016; Living On the Suncoast Magazine January 2014.

Awards & Events: 2017-6th Annual Semi-Finalist & 2016 6th Annual Semi-Finalist in Plein Air Magazine’s, Plein Air Salon; 2016 Awarded Best Landscape, Women’s Painters of the South East; 2016 & 2017 Faculty Artist, PleinAir magazine’s Plein Air Convention & Expo; 2014 & 2017 Juried Artist Plein Air Texas; Participant: Paint the Parks & Paint America; Muses Award Recipient; OPA (Oil Painters of America) 2017 Eastern Regional; 2017 American Impressionist Society 1st Annual Small Works Showcase; 25th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils OPA; 10th Biennial National Art Exhibition VAC; 2015 Juried Salon Show of Traditional Oils OPA; Women’s Painters of The South East 2014, 2016; National Art Encounter 2010, Naples; En Plein Air Texas Juried participant 2014, 2017.

Memberships: Oil Painters of America, American Impressionist Society, Plein Air Artist Colorado, Laguna Plein Air Painters Association; Founder of Venice Plein Air.

“Blue. White. Green”

10 in. w, 30 in. h, 5 in. d

Fused glass and steel

Available through Creighton Block Gallery

Tad Bradley received his Master of Architecture degree from Montana State University [MSU] in 2003. The research of this degree focused on the Psychological Effects of Space. After spending nearly two years working in Boston at Cambridge Seven Associates, LDA Architects and teaching at the Boston Architectural College he returned to Bozeman. While teaching in the School of Architecture at MSU he held employment at several local architecture firms spanning between commercial and residential design. Supplemental to this, he worked for several construction companies seeking to refine his knowledge of construction techniques and material understanding—that would then be disseminated to his students in the School of Architecture [SOA].

Outside of MSU his current research and practice is studying and teaching design fundamentals of glass in his studio and glass as a medium of architectural education. This has led to working with students of all ages, from kindergarten to adult artists. In August of this year Tad co-led an international design symposium between 5 international universities, held in northern Scotland. In addition to teaching, Tad’s practice is utilizing his master’s-degree research in order to design architecturally-scaled fine art in both the public and private realms. His fifth permanent art installation was recently installed in the enclosed stair of MSU’s new parking garage.

“It is because of my architectural education that I work in the manner and with the materials that I do. Every material has layers of complexity that must be understood in order to manipulate and accomplish the goal of the work. Different tools demand varying levels of skill and practice. Architecture and the art involved that transcend ‘space’ are built from multiple and simple levels of clarity, which upon overlapping, create an orchestra to be inhabited and experienced. I explore architectural compositions within my work. Ideas of transparency, structure and relationships of relativity easily scale from art to architecture. I am compelled to create using an abstract visual language. This allows the greatest breadth of interpretation by those who view the work.

I continually seek to more fully understand materials, fabrication, composition, interpretation and myself through the work I make. I have found that working with one’s hands offers a level of knowledge that cannot be learned through any text, no matter how eloquently written.”

– Tad Bradley

View more of Tad’s work at www.tadbradleydesigns.com

“Crossings”

40 x 40 in.

Oil on Canvas

Available through the artist

Michele Byrne is a plein air painter whose work has been featured in many plein air competitions across the country. Byrne’s work deals with the Art of Conversation. Capturing the essence of how we as humans communicate with each other. Whether in a café, on the beach, or walking down a city street, the figures in Byrne’s paintings capture the body language we pose while communicating. In oils, Byrne paints the energy people create while conversing in a profound way that viewers can connect with. For Byrne painting is a spiritual activity that consumes her and enables her to find that common thread no matter where she travels.

“The connection of humanity and the need to interact and connect with others are the foundation of my work. I want my paintings to tell a story–whether real or imagined by the viewer. I want to create a dialogue among the viewers. What’s going on? What are these people doing? What are they talking about or what are they thinking?” says Byrne.

“We are all wrapped up in our own lives and perspectives. I want my work to reflect the multilayered lives and personalities around us. We are all different, but we all have a basic simple human need to connect.

“Intersecting lines and paths have taken on a whole new meaning in my art. Recently I’ve been obsessed with the thought of intersecting lives, intersecting lines, crossroads, points of intersection and how they all affect life in the city. In my series of crossroads and crosswalks I’m attempting to capture this vibrant energy.”

Michele Byrne received her BFA from Kutztown University, PA in 1981 and continued her studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She has won extensive awards with her plein air paintings.

Her work may be found in the permanent collection of the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont, The Craig Thomas Visitor Center, Jackson, Wyoming, the Mennello Collection in Winter Park, Florida, and others nationally.

Byrne is a member of the Oil Painters of America, the Salmagundi Club, the Artists Fellowship, as well as a Signature member of the American Impressionist Society.

Visit Byrne’s website at www.michelebyrne.com for more information or to sign up for email newsletters.