Artists to Watch
THE EDITORS’ CHOICE FOR UP-AND-COMING TALENT
20 WWW.SOUTHWESTART.COM • AUGUST 2019
ONE WINTER MORNING, as John
Huerta Jr. pulled into the parking lot at
Ogden-Weber Technical College, where
he teaches graphic design, he instinctive-
ly glanced toward Ben Lomond Moun-
tain. The prominent, 9,712-foot peak
rises up from the Wasatch Range just
north of Ogden, UT, adorning the sky-
line. When going to and from work, says
Huerta, “I’ll glance over to see what the
mountain is doing that day. Sometimes
it’s shrouded in clouds, and sometimes it
has a beautiful orange color at sunset. On
this particular day, a winter storm had
just broken, and the light on the moun-
tain was just unreal.”
Most of the moun-
tainside and the tiny,
slumbering houses
in the valley below
remained cloaked in
frosty blue shadows,
but a bright shaft of
sunlight illuminated
Ben Lomond’s snow-
capped peak, prompt-
ing the artist to snap
some reference pho-
tos. “You just mark
those days when you
see something so in-
spiring,” says Huerta,
whose resulting paint-
ing, THE MOUNTAIN
AWA K E NS, garnered
the BoldBrush Award
in March. “Always
with my work, I’m
interested in express-
ing the qualities of
light.”
Trained in illustration and graphic de-
sign, Huerta worked in those fi elds for
several years before he tried his hand at
painting en plein air about 15 years ago.
The experience “reinvigorated” his love
for the landscape, says the artist, adding,
“For quite a while, I painted almost ex-
clusively en plein air because there was
such a joy to being out in the fi eld and
recording something spontaneously.”
Challenged to keep pace with the chang-
ing light, Huerta also learned to paint
swiftly. Gradually, he relinquished his
“meticulous, detail-oriented” approach
to painting and began employing looser,
bolder brushwork. “I became fascinated
with the thickness of the paint and how
it could add texture and drama, and how
the aggressiveness of the brush strokes
could add excitement and movement,”
he explains.John Huerta Jr.
Guided by the light
Today the Utah native reaps the ben-
efi ts of working both in his studio and
outdoors, viewing his studio time as
an opportunity to “infuse” his plein-air
observations with additional artistic in-
terpretation and emotion. He travels to
favorite painting locales throughout the
state, but inspiration abounds around
his home in Ogden, too. “Within 20
minutes, I can be in a different world,
from mountain vistas and remote ponds
to beautiful fi elds,” says Huerta. “It’s
amazing to see the different faces of
the landscape as the seasons change.”
—Kim Agricolarepresentation
Canyon Gallery, Kaysville, UT;
http://www.huertafi neart.com.cThe Mountain Awakens, oil, 16 x 20.
eInferno, oil, 36 x 24.