REXBURG—Landscape painter Brad Teare always wanted to be an artist. More specifically, he wanted to paint landscapes like his grandfather, whose art he would see as a child. However, he first went into illustration. He illustrated for publishers like The New York Times and Random House before taking the leap to painting in 1994.
He moved to Utah and started to paint landscapes. Over the years, he has developed a style where he uses palette knives to paint. He says he likes how the texture of the painting is similar to wood carving, which he also does.
“It’s kind of a halfway point between brushes and working with knives on wood,” Teare says. “There’s this kind of carving and I’ll layer on the paint and actually go in with a cement trowel at the end.”
Up close, the paintings may look abstract, but as the viewer moves away from the painting, the landscape becomes visible.
In his new exhibit at the Spori Art Gallery called “Impressions of the West,” there are paintings large and small that feature mountains, creeks and streams and lots of wildflowers. Teare says to make the colors pop in his paintings, he loads his palette knives up with multiple colors so he can get them on the canvas in one movement. He says it’s called color vibration.
“And what you want to do is get some complementary colors, oppositional colors, so that’ll ignite both of the colors,” he says. “So, if I have a swatch of green that has some crimson in it, and maybe some purple, cooler colors, it’ll just kind of ignite that green. And so, the green looks greener than it would otherwise.”
Teare says he does paint en plein air, which means he paints outside in the landscape itself. But he also paints in his studio. In one painting, he used inspiration from the hollyhocks in his courtyard to fill out the scene.
He says joy fuels his art. When he paints, he hopes to infuse that joy into the finished piece.
“If these paintings can bring people joy, that’s the ultimate for me,” he says. “So, when I’m painting these, I have to have a feeling of joy. It’s not really optional.”
The “Impressions of the West” exhibit is available in the Jacob Spori Art Gallery for free through April 9.