Jurors review Utah panoramas

The scenic opportunities of Utah have lent themselves to artists once again for the Days of '47 and Deseret Morning News Landscape Art Show.

Scenes from Utah, the West and the nation were represented in more than 260 entries for the show, titled "2004 Color of the Land."

"Utah has been wonderful because of the variety," said Marilee Campbell, one of the three artists chosen to jury the show. "From the high mountains to the desert to the lily ponds, you can find a little bit of everything."

Campbell, along with artists Blanche Wilson and Rob Colvin narrowed the submissions to 100 before choosing the winners. As they sifted through the artwork and contemplated each piece, decisions were made on a variety of criteria, differing for each juror.

They considered aspects such as professionalism, execution of the medium and color usage, but mostly good design. They looked for the use of fundamental design elements, like balance, proportion and rhythm that create an effective piece.

"So many people think that if they do it like the photograph, then that's going to make a good painting," Campbell said. "It may be that you have to edit and simplify, leave out a lot of details. The mark of a great painting isn't necessarily how many details you have in it, but how you design it and how you manipulate the picture plane."

All three jurors could notice the pieces were painted from a photograph. And although a majority of artwork is done from a reference photo instead of on-site (referred to as "plein air" painting), Campbell said that many artists don't see the increased contrasts that photographs create.

"The camera tends to flatten things out," said Colvin, who has done illustration work for U.S. News and World Report and Newsweek, but has recently turned to landscape painting. "If you compare your picture that you just took (to the painting) you would see the camera miss so many things that I see with my eyes. That's what artists need to go out and do — is observe with their eyes and see what the camera doesn't see."

A majority of the submissions were oil paintings, with a few watercolors, block prints, pastels and gouaches — all in a variety of color schemes, sizes and mediums, trying to balance the show.

"We picked out the good things first," said Wilson, who specializes in printmaking, which she has been doing for more than 30 years. "Then when we were choosing the winners, we tried to make that cover more territory, than just all oil paintings, or just all watercolor, but mostly it was just quality" that helped us decide.