The work of four Southern Utah artists is featured in a unique exhibit on display this month at the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum. The untitled show is a collection of the works of four professional artists and friends who gather weekly to paint and hone their craft.
“We give each other critiques,” said Carol Allen Bentley. “Everybody sees things in a different way.”
Bentley said that the group, which includes Carol Van Wagoner, Debbie Allan and Wendy Green, works together to push their artistic boundaries.
“When you’re painting you get so involved in what you’re doing that sometimes you don’t see that you need a little bit more value in one place or a little dot of color might give it a little extra zing,” she said.
Allan agrees that knowing each other and working together improves the quality of their work and the work is essential.
“Painting is just a part of our make-up, part of our fiber,” Allan said. “We’re not happy unless we’re creating and it could be other media, it doesn’t have to be oil paint but creating is the answer.”
The group came together when Van Wagoner and her niece, Wendy Green, decided to start painting together every week. When Debbie Allan moved to New Harmony, where Van Wagoner lives, they soon discovered each other.
“I stumbled on to Carol by accident,” Allan said. “We were having a talent night and she brought pictures and so did I.”
Van Wagoner had to go further afield to find Bentley, who lives in St. George. It seems that her arrival completed the group’s special chemistry.
“The four of us just really hung in there,” Van Wagoner said. “We’ve had other people come and go but we just love getting together and that way we can say, ‘What do you think of this?’”
The works on display offer unique perspectives of the beauty of Southern Utah as well as glimpses of the artists’ travels and friendships.
Bentley hopes visitors to the exhibit will walk away with an appreciation for the beauty around them.
“There’s a certain spirit here,” she said. “This is like an artist’s paradise.”
It’s no surprise that Allan agrees. It’s that perspective that binds the group together.
“Everywhere you look, every direction, there’s something you can paint,” she said.
The exhibit will be on display through the month of June. Frontier Homestead State Park, 635 N. Main St., Cedar City, is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For information call 435-586-9290.