PARK CITY
Julie Nester Gallery UP: A Sense of Place, an exhibition of recent artwork by Candice Eisenfeld and Thea Schrack through December 26. This show brings together two artists who are using contemporary techniques to produce fresh interpretations of landscape art. Candice Eisenfeld’s use of a lush color palette and artistic aesthetic were influenced by the Hudson River School. Eisenfeld works with acrylic paint, applying it in thin layers on wood panels. The paint is varnished to deepen the hues, a process that gives her paintings a luminous and aged quality. Although painted on a single panel, the pieces are segmented as diptychs or triptychs -- her brooding landscapes are paired with equally ethereal abstracts. The result is work that is steeped in metaphor and layered in meaning. Rather than depicting a specific locale in her paintings, her focus has been to evoke a sense of place inherent within the painting process. The landscapes are invented, and often referenced from photographs taken during travels. Her landscapes often show the environment as it moves from one state of being to another: the sun dipping just below the horizon, storm clouds gathering overhead, a foggy fall morning.

While Eisenfeld’s paintings are inspired by photographic images, Thea Schrack is an artist that starts with color photographs printed with archival pigment inks which are then combined with a number of layers of encaustic wax. This process transforms the original photograph, resulting in artwork that looks more like a painting than a photograph. Schrack’s images include lake and river views, fruit trees and majestic oaks. In describing her body of work Schrack writes, “In a canoe, mid January: bare trees/cold/overcast/enchanting. This series began on the Consumnes River, a wild brackish wilderness and branched out into the farmlands and waterways of the California Delta and now far beyond.”

There is an ease to Schrack’s work; the images seem to be about memory and the transformation of fact into a kind of dreamscape. The works are reassuring and peaceful; a few of the paintings use a river as the central focus, drawing the viewer into the photograph. The encaustic wax softens the photographic detail making the image less real, more of a memory or something from one’s imagination.

Kimball Art Center UP: Best in Show: Works by David Gilhooly, William Wegman and Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen, a group exhibition organized by the Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art that celebrates the relationship between humans and dogs seen through the distinct styles and media of these three well-known artists.

Montgomery Lee Fine Art UP: New paintings by Mike Malm.

Chester’s Blacksmith Shop UP: My Lonesome Crowded West: Paintings by Robert Mars, a new series of collage-based paintings. By utilizing brown paper bags, house paint, vintage newspapers, and photographs taken from his travels, Mars’ collages are a style all his own. Packed with the vibrant colors of the seasons and contrasted to stark black imagery, his pieces are a visual memory lane to all who have traveled America’s open roads. Also debuting will be a selection from Mars' other artistic outlet, Construct Clothing, a series of small edition artist tees and hoodies. The current series is a throwback to his childhood of weekend trips to the New York Museum of Natural History.

Terzian Gallery UPCOMING: Friday, December 29, 2006 Figurative Painters Emily McPhie and Patricia Kimball.

Meyer Gallery UP: The Meyer Gallery brings a new body of work by Utah artist Douglas Aagard. Aagard is primarily a self-taught artist, though the masterful approach he takes to his palette knife shows years of determination and diligence in his art.