Greg Newbold is an accomplished illustrator and painter. Newbold will be exhibiting new work at the Evergreen Framing Co. & Gallery this month. The Afternoon of Art show will include his work along with fellow gallery artists Aaron Fritz, Claire Tollstrup and Jodi Steen. The opening reception will be held Saturday afternoon September 19th from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Newbold lives in Utah. He was profiled previously at The Krakens for his illustration of Alibaba’s Jack Ma.

Tell us about this new series of paintings. I think my choice of subjects when it comes to landscape painting stems from my childhood. I was always enamored by grand vistas and the play of light. I remember staring at sunsets and soaking in the colors, amazed at their fleeting beauty and how quickly they were gone. We kept animals on the family homestead when I was young. My widowed great aunt lived on about a dozen acres in the home where she and my grandma grew up. She always had chickens and sheep as well as an occasional beef cow. I spent several years feeding and caring for the animals after school to help her out. Each spring would bring new lambs and the ritual of sheep shearing. My dad grew a huge garden which entailed many sweaty afternoons of weeding and harvesting. We also bucked many truckloads of hay. I think those experiences were ingrained in my memory and I gravitate toward farm and livestock subjects now as a result. I also love the landscape of this great state and have always been drawn to the red rock vistas of Southern Utah. The range of terrain in this state is astounding and every one of the paintings in this show is someplace I have been to and photographed or have painted on location.

What do you enjoy about painting landscapes? Landscape painting on the surface seems pretty straight forward. See something you like, and paint it. Easy, right? That notion can’t be further from the truth. I have found location painting (or painting en plein air) the most challenging and rewarding of artistic pursuits. When you are on location, you are at the mercy of time, weather and the elements. The entirety of the landscape is in your view and most of the time, I find that simply editing the scope of what I see down to a manageable chunk to be the most important step. I have to choose which sliver of awesome to try to capture on my panel. Then, if lighting conditions allow, I may have an hour to two hours to distill what I see and translate it to a few well placed strokes of paint before the shadow patterns are completely changed. The color that I see in nature, as opposed to what a camera sees, was the biggest revelation I have had from painting outdoors. I may not capture things exactly as I want them in the field, but the color notes are critical to conveying an authenticity to the viewer. Sometimes I tickle these studies in studio to finish them the way I wanted to in the field, sometimes they serve as the basis for larger paintings. Regardless, the experience of actually being there and seeing with my own eyes lets me take the information I gain from my photos and inject reality into my paintings. Learning to paint is a constant quest because there is always more to learn, but I love the challenge of trying to improve. Maybe someday I’ll reach a point where I can actually put down in paint my exact intention. For now, I am happy with close.

What are you working on next? I have a lot of irons in the fire. My gallery career is a pursuit that I am intent on growing, but at the same time, my commercial illustration work is what pays most of the bills and I always have projects going on there. I have a couple of big things in the works that hopefully I will be able to talk about in the coming months, but for now, it’s confidential. This year has also seen some new national clients like Barnes & Noble that has been a lot of fun. I get a kick out of knowing my work is in every single B&N store nationwide. On the gallery front, I will continue to supply as much new work as I can to my galleries David Ericson Fine Art and Evergreen Gallery in Salt Lake City, UT. I have also committed to doing the Art & Soup fundraiser in March of 2016, so that should be fun. I’ll be painting quite a bit between now and then, I am sure. In between, I’d like to get away on a couple of painting excursions to southern Utah. There’s nothing like being out in the wild to recharge the artistic batteries!

Visit Greg Newbold’s website.

Visit Greg Newbold’s blog, Life Needs Art.

Wilson Ong is a painter and teacher. He grew up in the Bay Area of California and received a BFA in painting and drawing from BYU. He furthered his studies at the Art Students’ League in New York City, NY. Wilson lives with his family in Corning, New York.

Describe yourself as an artist. I think that as an artist I can describe my approach as classical and academic. My interests within that spectrum have spanned from artists as Rembrandt, Norman Rockwell to divergent artists as Gustave Klimt. Recently, I’ve reviewed the work of Léon Augustin Lhermitte whom I have always enjoyed. Despite my interests, I don’t paint much like those masters, but I continue to learn from them. Museums are great and books are the next best teachers for me. I really do enjoy the figure and the portrait, however, I continue to explore the still life genre and landscapes. I’ve done a number of jobs that did not involve art, but being an artist has always given me the greatest challenge, the greatest personal sense of accomplishment, and ultimately a depressing amount of frustration and loneliness.

You once said, “I think painting is a privilege.” My parents are immigrants and “making it” in America consisted of a lot of hard work. I grew up working in the family restaurant, cleaning dishes, busing tables, food prepping (I’m decent with a knife). Of course as children we were required to do well in school (math was not bad, but English classes were a drag) and excel in college prep classes. During my youth, I often felt trapped and turned to drawing as a way to escape, plus it was always an enjoyable activity. Nevertheless, I was always reminded that my purpose was to work hard, get a good education and get a good job. Even though I say that, my parents did support my art in their own way. I don’t think they understood what I was about, but I was always allowed to purchase a modest amount of art materials when I needed to. Painting now is my medium of choice and I’ve had the opportunity to sell my work and support my family creating art for several years (it is not as romantic as it sounds). Of course in the back of my mind I’m prepared to flip burgers again (as well as doing the plethora of other jobs I’ve held in the past). I also know that there are others that would want a slice of what I have had or achieved, so I avoid being elitist when I speak of what I do.

You paint a lot of religious art. Talk about how you approach these pieces. That’s an interesting question, because I don’t think that my output of religious work is that significant. About five years ago I did paintings for a woman who was self-publishing a book titled “Portrait of a Woman and Jesus.” The bulk of my religious work is comprised in this group of paintings. This project was closely directed as she had a fairly specific vision of what she wanted. We worked well together and I was honored that she considered me an answer to her prayers. When creating these pieces and others, it is always important to know what the parameters are, that I need to work within. Personal connection is important to me so I do my best to empathize with the subject matter and imagine myself as a participant of the scene being painted. This may sound a bit sentimental, but I am careful to select the music and media I listen to or watch during the process. I think that the emotional content on the faces of the figures has always been an emphasis to me regardless of subject matter, so being keen to this is natural. Sketches are created and are approved, rejected, or adjusted. Depending on the complexity of the project, color studies are executed. The final paintings are then, again, approved, adjusted, and (unfortunately) sometimes rejected. The religious paintings that I have done for myself are a bit more difficult, because they are under the standard of my own personal vision and expectation, which may evolve and expand during the creation process. These paintings generally are started with a few rough sketches and resource materials with limited planning. There are quite a bit of changes in a process of this nature, yet in the end I find the journey with these projects much more satisfying than otherwise.

Explain your series of animal portraits. I think the explanation of these animal portraits are pretty self-evident. They are just fun and quirky. I’m able to take my classical training and apply them to a very non-serious subject matter. It would be comparable to exercising and eating healthy and then taking a break from it all to sit in front of the tube and pig out on junk food. I will do these from time to time as it allows me a release from doing my more serious work (wow that sounds so elitist). Personally, I enjoy doing them and I find myself tickled by the wit of each piece.

Visit Wilson Ong’s website.

Caitlin Connolly is a painter and creative enthusiast. She received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Utah and currently lives with her husband in Utah.

You once said, “I don’t think of myself as a religious painter, but I do strive to be a spiritual painter.” Explain. “Spiritual painting”, for me, is thrilling because it has so much to do with exploring and creating the unknown. Art often becomes my medium for exploring purpose in life and moments of truth. I experience truth in so many ways – human relationships, nature, music, words, art, conversation, introspection, and through religion too. Religious painting, in my mind, might have more to do with translating already existing narratives or answered questions into a visual experience. Spiritual painting gives me the freedom to discover new things, create new stories, and suggest new truth. Striving to be a spiritual painter is very challenging to me because there is always more to learn and a never-ending amount of truth that needs to be shared.

Tell us about your Internet nom de plume ‘LadyHue’. One of my first creative projects a number of years back was starting a blog called Hue and Hum about the early creative pursuits of my art and my musician husband. It’s no longer published, but it was a fun first step in my creative journey. It allowed me to share images of paintings I was making with an audience and it also gave me the unexpected opportunity to learn how to write using my voice. It was a very fun and exciting project where I was able to challenge myself, laugh, share, and grow. My online name, ladyhue, followed suit from this project, and acts as a bridge connecting me from where I began to where I am now.

You have said you like to explore ‘the feminine experience’. Do you feel like you are understanding yourself more through your art? I have learned a great deal about myself, but feel as though I’m still only scratching the surface. I have a hard time understanding myself, I get lost in my head easily and find it difficult to separate truth from fiction, imagination and reality. I think I need a practice like painting, which is slow and patient, to give me a longer amount of time and meditation on a specific subject. I’m still not sure if that’s a woman thing or a me thing and I don’t know how much I am like them or they are like me. So I guess I haven’t figured it all out yet.

What are you working on next? There are a number of paintings that have been begging to be painted–I am working on those. Also, I’ve spent the last few months writing, which has been a new fun project. I’ve been writing for years now, but only for myself, not for anyone else. Recently there were a number of stories that came to mind that I’ve been spending nearly all my time trying to capture them and turn them into words. I’m not sure what they’ll become yet, short stories or a novel or simply imaginary fun, but I am excited to find out.

Visit Caitlin Connolly’s website.

Follow Caitlin Connolly on Instagram.

Tyler Swain is a talented painter and graduated from Utah State University. Swain writes, “My paintings represent an allegory for the human experience which encompasses trials, pain, truth, hope, and love. Our world is often cold and unforgiving, but there is always beauty and purpose to be found.” He currently lives with his family in Utah.

You’re described your work as ‘contemporary realism’. Explain. Mostly I just got tired of trying to answer the question ‘What kind of art do you do?’ So I had to just start giving a short-hand label to keep things simple. I paint representational, which most people seem to connect with realism – with a fresh twist on traditional styles. Hence ‘contemporary realism’.

You once said, “My aim is to pay homage to the divine beauty around us.” Talk about your subject matter. My subject matter is both ordinary and sublime. Sometimes it is the every-day, sometimes overlooked things that can teach us the most. One of our main problems I think we face in today’s world is being so fast paced and materialistic that we stop seeing the miraculous things around us. I feel that there is enough negativity and controversy circulating the planet, and I just want to remind myself and others that life is still beautiful.

You were moved by the Church’s International Art Competition three years ago. This time around your work will be included in the exhibit. Talk about the experience and the painting you submitted. There have been several very pivotal moments in my artistic development thus far, and the International Art Competition three years ago was definitely one of them. It was a show that made me want to inspire and uplift others with my own art. I feel that all true beauty touches the human soul, and therefore is spiritual. For my submission I chose to paint a section of the purple robe that was placed on Christ’s shoulders as he was mocked. The robe is knotted to symbolize the agony and tension of the experience, yet elegantly presented to show the majesty of the Savior’s poise through it all. I rarely paint with a very specific narrative such as this, but this part of the New Testament has always struck an emotional chord with me, and seemed fitting for the theme “Tell me the stories of Jesus”.

Visit Tyler Swain’s website.

Follow Tyler Swain on Instagram.