PAINTING IN THE DEEP WOODS RESULTS TO BE SEEN AT UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY

LOGAN

What happens when a painter paints deep in the woods? The answer can be found at The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, on the campus of Utah State University, Jan. 24 - March 10. "Painted Perceptions of Cache Valley Canyons," a new exhibit opening at the museum, features the work of USU art department faculty member Woody Shepherd. An opening reception for the exhibit is Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 5:30 p.m. at the museum. The opening is free and all are invited.

The exhibition is comprised of 11 large paintings that measure 6 feet by 6 feet and up to 8 feet by 11 feet, and were painted on site around Cache Valley and off the beaten track. In such locations as Devil's Gate, Ox killer Hollow, Beaver Basin and Sink Hollow, Shepherd takes his large panels out to paint in the congested underbrush. His process involves visiting the site first to sketch and collect color samples, then he returns to the studio to develop the groundwork for the painting. He then returns to the location with the large panels to complete the work on site.

"The paintings of dense grottoes and hills seen through the thicket of fallen trees offer an unusual view of Cache Valley," said the museum's assistant curator Deb Banerjee. "In Woody, you find the unblinking clinical eye of a realist painter who paints from direct observation blended with the dazzling color pattern of an abstract expressionist painter."

"My paintings reflect my fascination with the beauty found in the interaction between perception, painting and the natural environment," Shepherd said. "The work becomes like jazz improvisation, an interaction of different voices; the artist, the changing light of the landscape over time, the painting and the process.

"The layers of the painting weave together light and space to function as a whole. I am interested in beauty but beauty as a tension of disparate things. When the inner forces of the tension are particularly dynamic, a painting explodes with sensations - that is, profound sentiments are produced from a clash between visual energies and stylistic descriptions."

Shepherd is originally from Birmingham, Ala. He studied painting and printmaking at Yale University, receiving a master of fine arts in 2005. He joined the USU faculty in 2005. He is represented by the Henoch Gallery in New York City.

A catalog, funded by a USU New Faculty Research Grant, will accompany the exhibition. Additional funding is from the Utah Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information about "Painted Perceptions of Cache Valley," or to schedule a tour of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, call (435) 797-0165.