An Afternoon Spent in High Uintas

Barbara Hortin’s painting captures a scene many Utahns know well; a bright afternoon at altitude, surrounded by the lush rustle of the wind through the evergreens and the sound of a small mountain river.

The water in Hortin’s piece holds the colors of the sky and trees, while allowing us to glimpse the striking reds and browns of the rocks beneath the surface. The eye is drawn up the river, leaping trout-like up the small waterfall created by fallen branches, until it meets the width of the woods and the small cut of blue sky that both suggests the size of the firmament beyond the painting’s frame, and invites our attention to linger on the forest itself, and to wonder at all it might contain.

2007 commission award