"I feel like I should put all kinds of disclaimers on them: 'I am not a photographer,' 'this is not a photograph,' " she said. "But that's where the title for the show comes from, 'Souvenirs.' It's sort of almost diminishing the importance of something like that, sort of like saying, 'This is what I found here, this is what I brought back.' "

Her "Melrose Abby" literally looks like one of those old sepia-toned postcards. (O'Hara Ure said she did no computer manipulation of her images.)

Of her paintings the artist said, "They're all painted in a way that, if somebody called them drawings, that would be fine, too. They're painted with a lot of drawing mediums. That's my attitude towards them, that's what interests me most about them, this obsessive mark making on the surface."

"Souvenirs" is illuminating; it reveals an artist arguably at the peak of her form, giving viewers a chance to experience images unearthed by deep religious beliefs and tempered artistic experience.

• In the gallery west of the one with O'Hara Ure's work, viewers will encounter a fresh new face: Lisa Hubbert. An MFA candidate at the University of Utah, Hubbert's paintings are gestural interpretations of orchards, up close and at a distance.

"There's an orchard nearby where I live in Highland that has been slated for housing development," Hubbert told the Deseret Morning News "This was the last chance for me to get in and really react with the orchard."

Hubbert isn't making any statements about the destruction of agricultural areas, "it's just my response to this particular place, of which I happen to be very fond."

The artist classifies herself as a Romantic Modernist. "It's not traditional landscapes, at least with this particular series."

In her artist statement Hubbert says she's interested in exploring the concept of perspective and proximity. "I got really fascinated," she said, "with the fact that if I pulled back to do a wider, almost panoramic view of the orchard, the paintings got really small." Yet when Hubbert focused on some branches or the trunk of a tree, the paintings "seemed to want to be bigger."

The smaller paintings in the show, such as "Equipoise," "Orchard in Red" and "Receding Storm" (all oil on paper on board and 12 by 12 inches) are more abstract, softer, simplified statements of form and shape and color. Even though they are small, they are still quite powerful.

Each of Hubbert's three "Proximity Series" paintings (oil on paper on board, 24 by 30 inches) are the works many viewers will find most exciting. The traffic of branches and trunks, leaves and sky, cohabit — albeit noisily — due to the artist's successful employment of positive and negative space, color, texture and balance.

"The paintings are just to be enjoyed," said Hubbert.

Viewers will.

Maureen O'Hara Ure is represented by Phillips Gallery, Salt Lake City. Lisa Hubbert is currently without representation.

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E-mail: gag@desnews.com

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