Description

Utah’s Byways

New paintings capture the diverse landscapes and towns of Utah.

Elise Zoller, an oil painter in the realist style, has been travelling Utah over the past few years, painting landscapes and cityscapes from Hurricane to Huntsville.  She has enjoyed meeting people along the road and learning about the history of the state. 

Elise says, “Plein air work can be physically demanding, but there is no substitute for working from life. Light and shadow dance in subtle ways a photograph cannot capture. Even the wind and the fragrances it carries inform the work. Scenes come alive when you stand in one place for a few hours.  You’ve got to get to know a spot. 

“While I work, all manner of people come up and talk to me about their towns and their lives.  I’ve met a downwinder from Enterprise, pie bakers in Veyo, pony cart drivers in Gunlock, a coyote in a cemetery, a cowgirl from Panguitch, and a friendly highway policewoman in Morgan. I’ve painted in snow, heatwaves, forests, and deserts.  My paint has frozen, my canvas has melted off boards, and my hat has blown across many Main Streets.  It’s been a great adventure!”

Elise has been painting and selling oils for over twenty years.  She’s a graduate of Princeton University in Architecture and has studied drawing and painting at the Academy of Realist Art in Boston and Masters Academy in Springville, UT.  She’s a member of Oil Painters of America, and has exhibited her paintings throughout New England and in the Southwest. 

Her landscapes were finalists in the landscape and plein air categories at the International Art Renewal Salon in 2016 and 2019 and earned an honorable mention in Southwest Art Magazine’s Artistic Excellence Contest in 2018.  She has accompanied Academic Arrangements Abroad trips as an Artist in Residence, painting plein air in Russia, Belgium, Holland, France, and the Caribbean in 2018 and ’19.

You can sign up for her newsletter at www.elisezoller.com to get an occasional email from her about her latest work as she keeps traveling the state.  Follow her travels on Instagram @elisezollerart and on Facebook at Elise Zoller Fine Art.

Utah’s Byways features 21 plein air and studio paintings.  It is at Phillips Gallery, 444 East 200 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, from September 18 to October 9, 2020.  Current hours are Tuesday to Saturday 12:00 to 5:00pm and by appointment.  Due to Covid, there is a limit of ten people at a time in the gallery. Masks are required. 

#############################

Elise Zoller

elisezoller@aol.com

cell: 781-363-1832