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Show Aft tlhe Kimball: Landscape paintings by Richard Murray, Christmas toys share honors E- 5 v . r - ri"L.- - rs ....... ii i. .im-.-i... .:il::!l:ir -j - r- - jr ! A4aAi t&Mf'vit loJtim.mrt-' ' it MH-M'i m by RICK BROUGH Record staff writer If you want to gauge the popularity populari-ty of an artist exhibiting at the Kimball Kim-ball Art Center, see how much finger food is left after the opening reception. recep-tion. In the case of Richard Murray, whose exhibit opened Sunday, the food ran out an hour before the V reception was over. A large crowd v appeared for the opening and Kimball Kim-ball director Diane Balaban buoyantly pointed out that Murray has a strong following in Salt Lake v City. , But despite his popularity, Murray still struggles with the demands he makes on himself as an artist. Talking Talk-ing with the Record, he looked almost worried as he discussed his struggle to "loosen up, lighten up" his painting. y For him, this means not giving in ' to the temptation of telling too much in the painting with detail. The temptation arises, he said, because "I might be afraid to let my brush strokes show. You grab for that security blanket and start whaling away at it. You get too tight. " Fortunately, he doesn't see the tightness much at all in his paintings on exhibit at the Kimball. His work, such as his large painting of the Grand Canyon, is "light." It works from 25 feet away. Murray is a landscape artist. His work at the Kimball deals mostly , with views of Utah pastures, silos, gently decrepit farm buildings, vistas of southern Utah, and at least one painting of Thaynes Canyon. . His paintings have two faces. The 1 painting, viewed from 25 feet away, is not the same as the painting at five feet away. At close range, you see the texture of the strokes and the wet, glistening look of the oil paint. The effect, Murray said, comes from ; the varnish used in the process. He has been making a living at art Uor trying to) for 16 years, he said.. He was born and raised in the Salt' Lake foothills, but became acquainted ac-quainted with Utah countryside by riding horses. ' , He travels as much as he can. Three of his paintings, exhibited in the Lower Gallery, are from Mexico, and people remarked how their look is different from his Utah work. "There's a glarey light there," he said. "There are flowers and color everywhere." In the near future, he would like to , paint some more experimental subjects, sub-jects, such as closeup objects. Early in his career, he said, he would paint the edge of a cabin or the end of a i stack of logs. ' A promising subject he never got a chance to paint, he recalled, was a collection of huge boxes at the Triad Center, swathed in black plastic and perched on stilts. Landscape painting is a genre that attracts many conventional artists. But if an artist is serious, he said, a painting will reveal something of the individual that creates it. Clearly, Murray doesn't evoke p conventional response from the public. His exhibit will appear at the Kimball through Jan. 2. In the Lower Gallery: When you descend the steps to ponder Murray's Mur-ray's bright paintings from Mexico, you may notice a room that looks as though Santa Claus came for a visit and dropped all his cargo in one spot. " It's the Kimball's annual " Christmas Boutique and early shop: pers are invited to browse at will. Kimball-associated artists have supplied the cornucopia of gift-giving gift-giving possibilities, including stuffed stuff-ed animals of all sizes and silly expressions; ex-pressions; Cabbage Patch dolls; wooden toys; antique dolls; mirrors with sculpted frames; and stockings for stuffing and tacking to the mantle. man-tle. The boutique will tempt shoppers through Jan. 2. .v..-. . , i.: Fpr mnre information, calK''' ""649-8118. ' ' ' " u i4mw3si! , t'Sstar J " s s 4 .... -v v . ... wi. ...... i,- ;S''a.V'!,:t." If " f I Little girls like Samantha Jane Potts (right), 4 12, of Salt Lake City, probably would like to find a big teddy bear or a Cabbage Patch doll (above) under the Christmas tree. Samantha Saman-tha was partial to a stuffed rooster she cuddled in the Christmas Boutique in the Kimball's Lower Gallery. photos by Robin Moench I , Utah artist Richard Murray (above) captures Salt Lake-area Lake-area landscapes with a brush he hopes avoids too much detail. "The Onion Field" (top) is a large oil painting that is reminiscent of turn-of-the-century style. |