SPRINGVILLE - Wayne Thiebaud still has pluck in his brush: At 87, he's been able to maintain a level of spontaneity and risk in his work that other artists would unquestionably envy.

In "Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting," at the Springville Museum of Art through July 27, the artist offers an 84-piece, retrospective glance at his early paintings and academic drawings from the 1930s-'50s as well as paintings covering the 1960s through 2007.

Thiebaud (Tee-bo) was born to Mormon parents in 1920 in Mesa, Ariz. His family moved to Long Beach, Calif., when he was 6 months old. Later, during his high school years, Thiebaud apprenticed at the Walt Disney Studio during the summer.

The artist spent part of his youth north of St. George. "From 1929-33 he lived at Thorley Ranch," said Vern Swanson, director of the Springville Museum of Art, "and he still speaks of that time with fondness."

(Because of his time spent in Utah, the museum recently named Thiebaud one of "Utah's Most Honored Living Artists.")

In 1941, Thiebaud earned a degree from Sacramento State College. From 1938-49, he worked as a cartoonist and designer in California, New York and served as an artist in the U.S. Navy.

At 32, Thiebaud earned a master's degree and began teaching art at Sacramento State College in 1952.

Best known for his thickly rendered, iconic still lifes of conventional American products, such as cakes, pies, sandwiches, cosmetics and toys, Thiebaud also applied his trademark bright palette and creamy brushwork to San Francisco cityscapes and Sacramento landscapes, both communicating through shimmering color and conflated perspective.

"He's using multiple points of perspective in these paintings," said Nicole C. Romney, who co-curated the exhibit with Traci A. Fieldsted and Jessica R. Weiss. "You have aerial, linear, atmospheric, even isometric perspective as in 'Ocean City' (2006-07). The painting gives you the feeling that you're rushing through the city in a taxi, going up and down and over and across."

"Fields & Furrows" (2002), a large Sacramento landscape, is the show's most visually successful example of the artist's multipoint outlook: His flawless use of color, line and form, as well as his hallmark "blue shadows," make this exquisite piece a must-see.

In this month's American Art Review, Fieldsted discusses the exhibit: "For Thiebaud, the execution of the applied paint is as important as the subjects he depicts. The tactile surfaces of his more familiar food and confection images that made Thiebaud famous are layered with his signature impasto and bravura."

In "Dark Candy Apples" (1983), "Watermelon Slices" (1963), "Food Bowls" (2005) and "Fish on Platter" (1980), Fieldsted's claim finds fulfillment.