Saints at Devil's Gate: Landscapes Along the Mormon Trail - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 069278585X ISBN 13: 9780692785850

Publisher: Church Historian's Pr, 2016

Synopsis

From 1846 to 1869, some 70,000 Mormon pioneers traveled the Mormon Trail, the 1,300-mile route from Illinois and Iowa to the Salt Lake Valley. In 2011, three award-winning Mormon painters decided to visit sites all along the historic route and capture the landscapes in oil. This full-color art book, featuring 52 landscape paintings, presents the fruits of their five-year project. Each painting is paired with journal entries or reminiscences from pioneers who made the journey. These pioneer accounts comment not only on the difficulties they experienced but on the beauty of the wilderness and the wonder of such an adventure. Essays by the authors and an artist interview illuminate both the art and the history of the trail.

The book gives written and visual context to the pioneers experience of the trail, bears witness to the land as it exists today, and links the experience of pioneers to the challenges of today.

About this title

About the Author

Laura Allred Hurtado works as the global acquisitions art curator for the Church History Museum, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. She has curated exhibitions at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, CUAC Contemporary, Alice Gallery, Rio Gallery, Snow College, and the Granary Art Center. Previously she worked at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Brigham Young University Museum of Art, and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art.

Bryon C. Andreasen earned a JD at Cornell University and a PhD in nineteenth-century American history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently a historian at the Church History Museum, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Previously he was the research historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, where he also edited the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association and helped found the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition that pioneered heritage tourism in Illinois.

John Burton is an award-winning oil painter best known for his stirring and vivid depictions of the transitory beauty of our ever-changing world. A graduate of Academy of Art University, Burton has traveled and painted around the globe, always maintaining his home in the American West. Burton s deep American roots permeate the rich, natural character of his art and inform his work s reverent tone.

Josh Clare graduated with a BFA in illustration from BYU-Idaho in 2007 and has earned numerous awards, including Artists Choice at the 2012 Laguna Plein Air Invitational and second place in the Raymar 6th Annual Art Painting Competition. His work has been featured in Western Art & Architecture, Southwest Art, and Art of the West.

An avid traveler and an accomplished painter, Bryan Mark Taylor has won numerous top awards at the most prestigious plein air invitationals and is regularly featured in western art magazines. His work can be found in private, corporate, and museum collections around the world. He received his BA from Brigham Young University in 2001 and his MFA from Academy of Art University in 2005.

Review

The book is put together remarkably well. Burton, Clare, and Taylor each have a unique artistic style that complements each other s work. . . . A few notable locations, such as the Sweetwater River and, of course, Devil s Gate itself, are depicted more than once, allowing the viewer to experience the scene from more than one set of eyes. The reprints themselves are well done, with vibrant colors and enough detail to be able to appreciate the thick texture that is such a hallmark of oil paintings, such as in Clare s Light of Life, a stunning example of mountains made seemingly out of brushstrokes. --Sarah Moore, for the Association of Mormon Letters

The paintings are skillfully executed landscape scenes displaying a full range of techniques to increase visual impact. --Shawn Rossiter, for 15 Bytes: Utah s Art s Magazine

This book is wonderfully done! With beautiful paintings on each page, framed by journal entries, memories, and historian or artist or curator perspectives, this is a timeless piece that is perfect for those who want to learn more about this time period and the things these pioneers when through. I feel that the stories are really brought to life by combining the art with each thought, and I loved learning more about everyday life. . . . It's a great addition to any historical collection. --Katie Watkins, Katie s Clean Book Collection (blog)

About this edition

• Publisher: Church Historian's Pr
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 069278585X
• ISBN 13: 9780692785850
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 143
• Illustrator: Burton John, Clare Josh, Taylor Bryan