Portfolio of Works
North Frank
North Frank is an independent abstract painter. Her tree shadow paintings are inspired by hiking and exploring the Colorado Plateau.
Taking her canvas outside into nature she finds a spot where a tree’s shadows cast onto the earth, vibrate and demand attention. Placing the canvas so it captures a section of the tree’s shadows, usually flat on the ground, she records or draws the tree's shadows on to the canvas with thick graphite or chalks. She usually hikes around a bit and when she returns to the spot, she may add more shadows as they usually change. Occasionally, she will leave the canvas out at the spot and return the next day to add more shadows/lines/marks from different light. She likes to try and “capture the passage of time” in her abstracts this way.
Once she has enough “information from the Sun’s rays,” she takes her canvas home to her studio and culls out the shapes that she will work with in creating the final painting. She then paints with acrylics employing a limited palette, allowing for a sense of abstract esthetic and spontaneity to engage with nature.
Previously from New York and California, art is a way of life for North. Painting, drawing, and engaging in many other artistic and creative activities since childhood, she also has formal art/studio training from Skidmore College in upstate New York, the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Italy, and several art schools/programs in Southern California. She lives with her husband and their dog in Moab, UT.
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Sandi Snead
Art has been the driving force in Snead’s life since she was born. Her creative energy found multiple avenues to explore but she chose to pursue visual arts and dance. She graduated from the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale and worked as a commercial artist
and illustrator for many years. Later she began to explore more personal forms of art.
The Jacksonville native moved to the Moab area in 1999 because she was drawn to the surreal landscapes. She is fascinated with surrealism and deeply influenced by it.
Dance has played a secondary yet vital role in her world. She has abundant energy and loves the joy that dancing gives her. She also loves to express movement in her paintings
with the use of smooth sensual strokes. Snead’s style ranges from alternative realism to representational with surrealist infusion. Sometimes she pushes color to enhance the drama or atmosphere of her work. Her paintings often provoke feelings from the viewer
as she aims for a more visceral response.
Peggy Harty
Through the years I’ve explored color, form, and texture through quilting, photography, ceramics, and painting. Since retiring from teaching elementary school, I’ve pursued my artwork with more vigor. I enjoy working in an open studio with other artists and doing Plein Air in Moab’s beautiful surroundings.
Upon reflection I realized that I’ve always been enthralled with landscape. My earliest memories are sitting in the backseat on road trips composing scenes with my imaginary camera. I find back country hiking, roadside stops, and chasing the wildflowers with camera in hand a necessary fix.
I’ve played with other mediums but really love pastel as it is a very forgiving medium which allows both spontaneity and precision. I’ve entered numerous shows and often come away with a ribbon of some sort. That recognition has been very rewarding.
The Paintings in this portfolio are currently available for purchase through Gallery Moab or here online.
Giclee prints are also available. Take a look at my archive where you will see past works by me and can also order prints.
Jonathan Frank
Jonathan Frank’s watercolor paintings are projections of a perfect, pristine landscape without roads, people, or beer cans. The main theme of his work is that nature prevails. As a landscape painter his primary objective is to depict nature as if it had never been touched by humankind, and to emphasize a feeling of solitude and isolation. He will occasionally paint man-made objects, but only after they have failed in their applications, and have been abandoned, and left to be reclaimed by nature.
Painting since childhood, he is fueled by the anticipation of discovery. Originally from Denver, Colorado he has been living and working in Moab, Utah for the last fifteen years. He explains that when he takes his camera out and goes for a hike, he is always looking for the highest vantage point, the grandest view, or just to see how far he can get. All the while, he imagines that he is discovering a place for the first time…as if no one has ever found it before. He is rewarded by having his mind blown when place and moment come together. Using his camera as a sketchbook, he captures a scene from as many angles as possible. This is so he can wrestle with the dimensional nature of his source materials. His true challenge lies back in the studio where he must “make sense” of the images, to translate them into his own visual language. In the process of building up his painting, each element he works with becomes an abstract shape. Ultimately, he outlines each of these hundreds of shapes with India ink. This gives balance to the various parts making them equal in their presentation, thus unifying the whole picture.
By reducing the landscape to its bare essence, he offers the viewer an opportunity to be alone in the landscape, to experience it on their terms, in their own personal way, to find peace, solitude, or even happiness. A rare talent in this complex, ever changing environment.
Daniel Hills
My first memory is of scribbling with a cyan crayon on the inside of a cereal box. Since that time I’ve spent countless hours painting landscapes on sight. Though I also work in a studio, I prefer to be there, in nature with a brush and canvas.
When in the presence of a plein air painting the essence of the place shines through. There are details and an animism that the camera cannot capture. These windswept paintings bear the literal elements of the landscape they represent in bits of sand and plant clinging to the canvas. The viewer is there, and that is the feeling I transmit through my art art. There's no better way to preserve the spirit of the southwest landscape than through plein air painting.
It is a spiritual practice. “Double Arch,” for example, constitutes nearly 60 hours spent in front of the subject, brush in hand. During that time I meditatively absorbed every nuance and detail, each intimate interaction recorded thoughtfully on canvas. Viewers are then invited in by the landscape and the artwork to enjoy it through similar meditation.
Deborah McDermott
Here in Moab, my artwork has been strongly influenced by the landscape. How can it not be? I can be on top of a plateau, down in a wash, beneath an arch, or squeezing between cliff walls--all in one day! Point of view is important to me in both my painting and prints.
When I walk through the landscape, my eyes take me in all directions. What's underfoot is often more interesting to me than the BIG picture. So, I continue to search for fresh perspectives that can leave a work open to interpretation. I am happy when someone connects my imagery to something else in nature because in the end all things in nature connect in some way with one another.
Carolyn Tibbetts
Carolyn Tibbetts is a lifelong resident of the state of Utah. She was born and raised in a small town in the majestic mountains of Northern Utah. It was there, inspired by the beauty surrounding her, that she began her love of art that she continues to express in paintings of her adopted hometown of Moab.
She moved to Moab in the early 1970's and raised her family here among the red cliffs and rugged back country of the area. With her family, she continues to explore the South Eastern part of Utah and they have found some truly hidden and wonderful places. It is those times out on the desert that have inspired her most recent paintings. The color, texture and symbolism of the desert surrounding Moab are visible in her paintings and her love of those areas shines through in each painting she finishes.
Although mostly self-taught, Carolyn has taken several classes and workshops from local and visiting artists. She has competed in local plein-air competitions. She enjoys the challenge of painting cliffs, skies, and landscapes that she sees every day. Her eye for color are evident in her paintings
Carolyn has worked in watercolor, pencil, pastel, acrylic, and lost wax technique, but by far her favorite medium is oil. The diversity and challenge of painting in oils is rewarding. Her oil paintings reflect the intense, brilliant colors that can be achieved through oils.
Shari Michaud
I am Shari Michaud, a Utah based artist specializing in acrylics and clay. I strive to make thought provoking, illustrative work. I prefer edgy, bold, whimsical, sassy, brassy and irreverent. If I am able to incorporate at least three of these per piece, I’ll feel successful.
And it’s a gold star if I can land a laugh, snicker or chuckle.
My original works can be seen in Moab, Utah at Tumbleweed, Gallery Moab, Gallery 24 in Torrey and Kiva Koffeehouse in Escalante.
