by Julie M. Zych

In the early 1920’s when Beverly Wheeler Mastrim was six years old she glanced out the second floor window of her family’s farm house and saw something inspiring. She ran down the stairs and reached a stranger painting a white horse and a barn. Instantly she was hooked on the idea of painting and watched him for the rest of the day. The next morning Beverly talked her mother into letting her dismantle her bedroom window shade for use as a canvas and her music stand to double as an easel. With paints in hand she set out to imitate what she saw the previous day and the rest, as they say, is history.

Beverly, granddaughter to Henry and Sariah Wheeler, was born and raised on the property that is now Wheeler Historic Farm. Her experience growing up on her grandparents’ farm has been her motivation for most of her art work and those first impressions still influence her work today. “Many of my paintings depict the life of a farmer,” Beverly says. “ I have painted their portraits, homesteads and artifacts. I love the earth’s bounty; naturally I favor the earth’s colors for my palette.”

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by Kent Rigby

Salt Lake area artists are very fortunate to have great non-profit galleries to exhibit their work in. Finch Lane Gallery has been one of the most coveted fine art venues for more years than most of the artists that exhibit there have been on the planet, let alone, producing art.

Administered by the Salt Lake Arts Council, the Finch Lane Gallery is also one of the favorite Gallery Stroll hangouts. Director Nancy Boskoff, and Arts Council Assistant Director Kim Duffin love fine art and really care about providing the highest caliber service possible. Their dedication to excellence is evident in every exhibit presented. Glenn Richards does a great job with exhibit preparation and hanging as well. The SLAC Visual Arts Committee does a tremendous job not only selecting the annual slate of exhibiting artists but also in determining which artists will exhibit together.

The current Lou Ann Heller, Judith Romney Wolbach and Jennifer Worsley exhibit, on display through the end of the month, is no exception. This is an attractive show and the work hangs very well together. Colorful, abstract oil paintings by Heller inhabit the east gallery, wonderful pastels drawings by Worsley reside in the west gallery and ceramic sculptures by Wolbach are placed in both spaces, visually connecting the different media and styles of the 2-D artists.

Content and theme also serve to weave the exhibit into a unified whole. Heller’s oils are landscape-based abstractions, Worsley’s pastels on paper drawings are realistic creek and riverside landscapes and Wolbach’s sculptural elements are also drawn from the natural world.

Lou Ann Heller earned a BFA from the University of Arts In Philadelphia in 1976 and moved to Utah in 1977. She worked as a freelance designer until accepting a position as a staff artist for the Desert Morning News in 1993.

Horizon is the primary structural element in Heller’s “Wyoming Exit.” Converging diagonal elements are suggestive of natural land forms. The colors are vivid but conducive to the elemental landscape abstraction. Colors are played upon colors and paint strokes upon paint strokes in an “additive” method, which provides a sense of linear movement. There is a reference to shallow planes which break through the over-all composition here and there, providing further reference to place and environment.