Rounds sold his paintings by the square inch at malls and art shows. He sold them out of his house for 15 years because he couldn't afford a gallery, which takes half the profits in commission. His former professors told him he was squandering his talent by selling rapid-production paintings in malls, but he had a family to care for.

His chief source of income in those days was thrice-yearly showings at the house of a wealthy friend. Rounds would paint for several months, hoard his work, then sell all of them in a single night at these shows. It would provide Rounds with enough money to pay his debts, buy groceries and continue painting.

"I wanted to get better, not faster," says Rounds, "but to make money you have to be faster. Our goal was to get better, take more time."

Rounds began producing prints of his paintings to make them available to those who couldn't afford originals. That provided extra income, which gave Rounds the luxury of spending more time on his paintings, but money has always been tight.

"There were times when we didn't have enough money for groceries, but I didn't tell him because I thought it would hurt his painting," says Nancy. "I felt a lot of pressure. I'd wonder how we were going to make it. I learned to budget. The pressure on me was intense. Now I tell him."

Rounds has been working on a large painting of Salt Lake City's Mount Olympus for four months (which he believes will be his best work ever). "That means we haven't made any money in those four months," says Rounds. "Nancy made it possible that we could get by. She budgeted."

Nancy has been urging Al to stop working on the painting and produce something else that he could sell immediately, but he says he can't think of anything else but his current project. "We live from painting to painting," says Rounds. "Always have, always will."

Rounds has no agent and only one small, family-run gallery in which to sell his originals. The Roundses have always been a mom-and-pop operation, with Nancy overseeing the business side. Miller wants Rounds to expand his subject matter to give himself a broader audience and more revenue.

"He does look at it (painting) as a (church) calling," says Miller, who has seven of Rounds' originals hanging in his house. "But there's room to do more. He's got a great gift."

Gerald Olson, Rounds' old professor, says, "He could show in New York with paintings that were appealing to a general audience. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. There's just not enough money floating around."

Strangers' tears

Rounds produces 10 to 12 paintings a year. Undoubtedly, he could be considerably more profitable and prolific if he didn't refuse to replicate some of his own paintings or if he weren't so meticulous.