Exploring Utah Artists

 

This lesson plan is designed for a power point presentation, or color copies of the art work. Click on the title of the painting to access the discussion script.

 

LeConte Stewart

NEW FALLEN SNOW 1922

Oil on canvas

37 ˝ x 31 ˝

Permanent Collection Eccles Community Art Center

LeConte Stewart was born April 15, 1891 in Glenwood Utah.  He died June 6, 1990 in Clearfield Utah at the age of 99. LeConte Stewart was a painter of Utah rural structures and landscapes.  He worked mostly in oil, but also used pencil, pen, ink, and etchings. He preferred to work as quickly as possible. It was not uncommon for him to produce up to six pieces in one day.  Stewart didn’t paint much in the summer. He usually began working in earnest toward the middle of October. He enjoyed the winter seasons. He loved the mood it created and the tonal and color quality it possessed. “There is within such a scene and infinite number of color variations.” He once said of winter.  In NEW FALLEN SNOW 1922, it appears that no one is around. However, the tracks in the snow indicate activity. Ask your students what/who they think made the tracks. The spacing between that tracks might indicate a car.

 

Have a picture of a 1922 (or close to that year) car. Ask the students if they think that this car would travel in snow.  Talk about other things that may have made the tracks, sleds, people, or animals. Have a discussion about what they thought the people that lived in the house did during the winters in 1922. How would it be different from what we do today?

 

UNTITLED Jul 16 [19]28

Oil on Mat Board

11 5/8” x 13 7/8”

Permanent Collection Eccles Community Art Center

This small piece shows a typical Utah landscape in 1928. We see the periwinkle color that Stewart was said to be very fond of. This piece gives us a look at the Wasatch front circa 1928. We see that Utah is still a rural area. Today there would be homes, buildings, perhaps a busy interstate! Much of Stewarts work documents the changes in the Northern Utah landscape over the last 60-80 years.

 

At Sundown, Eden

Oil on panel,

1934, 6 in. x 8.5 in.

Museum of Church History and Art

This Piece has been painted in the impasto style. In English, the borrowed Italian word impasto most commonly refers to a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface (or the entire canvas) very thick. therefore the brush or knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides texture, the paint coming out of the Impastoed paint serves several purposes. First, it makes the light reflect in a particular way, giving the artist additional control over the play of light on the painting. Second, it can add expressiveness to the painting, the viewer being able to notice the strength and speed applied by the artist. Third, impasto can push a painting into a three dimensional sculptural rendering.

Point out to the students that this piece was done 12 years after New Fallen Snow.  Ask them if they would recognize this as the same artist. What are the differences between the two pieces?

Eyes Wide Open, Farmington

Oil on panel, 1939

 16 in. x 20 in.
Museum of Church History and Art

This piece was done 5 years after ‘At Sundown’.  Point out to your students that the four pieces we have looked at so far have their own unique qualities.  Why do they think that is? What are the differences?

As one's eyes have been said to be the windows to the soul, the bare windows of this stark, abandoned two–story pioneer house seem to almost reveal the life and history of this noble dwelling. LeConte Stewart said: "True art is not so much a representation of something as it is an emotional reaction to a subject. To me, art is a matter of caring–of being moved."  Lds.org

*Pea Vinery, Layton

LeConte Stewart
Oil on panel, 1940, 18 in. x 24 in.
Owned by Reed and Chris Halladay

This piece was done just one year after eyes wide open. Notice how the artist has gone from the very dull muted colors of new fallen snow to the very bright paints we see here in Pea Vinery, Layton. His earlier work was in the realism in style and in his later paintings we notice that he has adopted more of an impressionistic style. Have your students look at Pea Vinery. Have them describe what the picture is of.  A lot of children will describe the 3 cars as “old”. Point out to them that at the time of this painting (1940) The cars would not have been that old. At first glance, we think that perhaps the cars are abandoned in the field. We relate to what we know and since we normally see cars of this era abandoned in fields, this would be our first perception. On further inspections we notice the workers.

 

 

 

 

 

 *This image is of a drawing, painting, print, or other two-dimensional work of art, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the artist who produced the image, the person who commissioned the work or the heirs thereof. It is believed that the use of low-resolution images of works of art, For critical commentary on

 

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Description:  a low resolution image is used to show LeConte Stewarts paintings.  The image is shown to help students see the evolution of the artist, from earlier paintings to the later paintings. The image is used for teaching purposes only and it is considered that this will not commercially harm the copyright holder. Image used will be of such low resolution that it is believed that any copy made would be of such inferior quality that it would be unsuitable for uses that would compete with any commercial purpose of the image. It is believed that this is fair use and does not infringe on any copyright laws.