New art gallery in Spring City features local artists' works

Though known for its artists — or Art & Sheep, as the T-shirts at the Spring City Art Gallery proclaim — there never was a big drive to turn Spring City into an artist's colony.

And there still isn't, says Lee Udall Bennion, who moved there with her husband, Joe, in 1976. It all just kind of naturally evolved.

"When we moved here, Max Blain, Ella Peacock and Osral Allred were about the only artists working here. But we moved here because it is a beautiful place."

There are still a lot of farmers, still a lot of people who do other things. "But it is still a quiet, beautiful place," she says.

But Lee Bennion is glad that other artists have discovered it. "If there are more artists, more art, people are more likely to come. Now, having a little gallery on Main Street really helps."

That gallery is operated by the Spring City Arts association and features work by all the local artists. Members of the association take turns volunteering their time there. There's also a sign on the door of people to call, houses to visit if no one happens to be in the shop when you need them.

That casual approach works well in Spring City and has always worked for Joe Bennion, whose Horseshoe Mountain Pottery shop on Main Street is never closed. If Joe doesn't happen to be there, visitors are invited to pick out what they want, write up their own receipt, figure their own taxes and leave cash or a check in the drawer.

That honor system approach would not work everywhere, but it works here, says Joe.

Another thing that works in Spring City is that you can build a combination art studio/horse barn, which is exactly what Lee is doing. "I've always wanted to live with horses," she says. "I was going to build a new studio and a new barn, but with the financial situation what it is these days, we decided it would work better to combine them. We found an old shed about four blocks over and moved it here to be the nucleus of the studio. The horses will have about a third, and I'll have the rest."

She will have an etching/printmaking studio that she will share with fellow artist Kathy Peterson on the ground floor; the upstairs will be her painting studio, bathed in light from windows and skylights. Their home is on the other side of the block, "so I really have a nice commute to work," she says.

When they moved to Spring City, Joe really did not plan on being an artist. "I was going to be an elementary school teacher. We came here to raise our kids; the art thing was an afterthought."

He had been doing some pottery, "but it was Lee that convinced me I should do what I loved, not what I thought I ought to do."