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SALT LAKE CITY — This is the Place Heritage Park has been transformed into an art lover's haven, showcasing more than 80 Utah artists who are selling and creating art in their booths.
From landscapes to portraits to expressionistic stories, hundreds of diverse artworks are being displayed and sold at the Art at The Park event this weekend.
Rob Chipman, organizer of Art at The Park and president of the Intermountain Society of Artists, said this event has been in the works for three years. He described Art at The Park as an event put on by artists for art lovers.
"We've got some of the best artists in Utah on display," Chipman said. "It's sensory overload to walk down the aisle because each one, their work is so spectacular."
Chipman is an artist himself who has a booth of reduction block prints, a style of artwork made by carving a block and printing in layers to achieve a final overall picture.
Artworks at the event include watercolor, acrylic, oil paintings, glasswork, prints, encaustic, mixed media, and pen and ink drawings. Thursday night kicked off the event with a VIP showing for the artists where collectors came to get first looks at the artwork before it was open to the public. Many of the artists sold multiple artworks during the VIP event.
For some artists, the subject matter is what propels their artwork into existence.
Artist Sarah Ashley Peterson started in graphic design at school, but realized she just loved working with the art physically rather than on a computer. Growing up in Idaho, she has a fond love for the mountains, the outdoors and nature.
Her artwork incorporates both of these sides of her, combining large graphic elements with mountains and nature scenes in a combination of woodworking, painting and drawing.
"I'm fairly new to the art world but it's been amazing and I have loved it," Peterson said.
Some artists create art because of how it makes them feel.
Beki Tobiasson is a mother of eight who only recently has had time to explore her art. She said art has become an obsession for her because it is a "healthy place to dump your emotions. It is just so healing."
The main story her art tells is that although life can be really dark and hard, there is always glorious and beautiful shining spots that come up. Her booth is filled with large emotional paintings of storms, sunsets and symbolic hopeful stories highlighting the contrast between dark and light.
Tobiasson also does religious art. One of of her pieces pictures Ruth and Naomi from the Bible. She said she was commissioned to do this piece for the book "Women Who Believe" by Heather B. Moore and Angela Eschler.
For Lynette Nichols, her story drives her artwork. Nichols married into the White Mountain Apache tribe and spent 25 years on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. After being immersed in the culture for so long, she experienced culture shock when she moved away eight years ago and she missed the culture.
"I wanted to start drawing and I knew I wanted to do nature, but I knew I wanted it to have the Native influence to reflect my experience on the reservation," she said. She calls her art "blended with nature" because of the Native American design blending into her highly detailed nature imagery.
Other artists create art just because they love doing it.
Heather Olsen has been painting and drawing her whole life and was excited when she realized she could make art her full-time job. As a professional artist of seven years, she enjoys painting expressionistic portraits of people and animals.
Olsen said this event is a fun opportunity to see the diversity of local art in Utah, interact with the artists, and potentially acquire some unique pieces.
While some artists have been painting their whole lives, others are just breaking into the artistic world.
Elizabeth Walsh is an emerging artist who decided to start painting during the pandemic when she had lots of time on her hands. Her style is an abstract look at landscapes, giving Western art a modern twist with colorful dots and gold leaf in the sky and turning the mountains black and white to make them pop.
"People are very lovely, they are always very curious," Walsh said about the interaction she has experienced so far. "My stuff does stand out a little different than others so it's interesting to see how that is received and it's generally very positive."
The Art at The Park will be open until 9 p.m. Friday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.
