2131

under
Young Artists
to Collect Now

+
G. Harvey’s
Major Texas Show
The Society of
Animal Artists
Exhibition
 A Symphony of
Color & Light
Bryan Mark Taylor is
33, has the energy of a 13-year-old, talks
like a wise old man, and paints like he’s
been doing it all his life—which he al-
most has. It’s a combination that is gar-
nering growing recognition for his work
from colleagues and collectors, and add-
ing greater meaning and activity to an al-
ready full life.
Bryan Mark Taylor finds harmony in the Among other recent honors, the San
Francisco artist earned best of show at
two California plein-air events, won sec-
landscapes he paints By G ussi e Fau ntle roy ond place and emerging artist awards at
another, was included in the Paint the
Parks national traveling exhibition, and
was juried into the Salon International
show at Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art in
San Antonio, TX. Taylor’s achievements,
particularly in the realm of plein-air
painting, reflect the rush of enthusiasm
he experiences when painting outdoors
with fellow artists. Back in the studio of
the home he shares with his wife, Haley,
and their two children, he frequently en-
joys the company of his 1-year-old daugh-
ter and 4-year-old son. The artist clearly
thrives on being busy, or “engaged at all
levels,” as he says with a warm smile.
Out the studio windows, the lush foli-
age of oak trees belies the fact that within
minutes he can take mass transit into the
heart of the city, where he teaches gradu-
ate students at the Academy of Art Uni-
versity. When he’s not painting, teaching,
taking in concerts and museums, travel-
ing with the family, swimming, hiking,
fishing, or backpacking, Taylor is active
in his church, where he often presents p Dr i v i ng w i t h You r L igh t s On, oi l , 2 4 x 1 8 .
motivational talks to youth. t Old T ow n S u n s e t, oi l , 16 x 2 0.
So when he packs up his paints and
heads out alone to create oil sketches on
the hilly San Francisco streets or along the
Pacific coastline, it is an opportunity to dossier
shed distractions and become more single- representation
minded for a time. “I can distance myself Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio, TX;
from all the things going on around me, James J. Rieser Fine Art, Carmel, CA; Elliott Fouts
all the time constraints and deadlines,” he Gallery, Sacramento, CA; Lovetts Gallery, Tulsa,
observes. “I feel that all melt away.” OK; Tomales Fine Art, Tomales, CA; Holton Studio
Gallery, Emeryville, CA; Williams Fine Art, Salt Lake
What emerges during these periods of
City, UT; www.bryanmarktaylor.com.
intensely focused observation and paint- UPCOMING shows
ing is a feeling of reverence for the land- Solo show, Elliott Fouts Gallery, through September.
scape and for the beauty that can be per- San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival, San Luis Obispo, CA, September 28-October 3.
ceived even amidst the chaos and noise Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational, Laguna Beach, CA, October 10-17.
of the city. “It’s there if you choose to see Three-person show, Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, November 5-28.

58 www.southwestart.com // september 2010


Fa r m s a n d t h e i r F i e ld s ,
oi l , 2 4 x 3 0.
Taylor sees visual harmony as
a reflection of the sacred that
lies behind the beauty in
each landscape he paints.
h
it,” the artist affirms. “There are all these
buildings and all these people with com-
peting egos, but it can all come together
in a fascinating and beautiful whole.”
Taylor comes from farming
families on both sides. His father, raised
on an Idaho potato farm, moved his fam-
ily from Portland, OR, to just north of Salt
Lake City, UT, when Bryan was a year old.
His father chose Utah to finish his medi-
cal residency but also for easy access to
skiing, fishing, and hiking. Growing up,
Bryan inherited his father’s love of the
outdoors. He also inherited an affinity for
pastoral landscapes.
FARMS AND THEIR FIELDS, a painting
Taylor describes as “classic American
farmland,” depicts a region in northern
Utah near the Idaho border that holds
special significance for the artist. When
Bryan was 8, he and his father were driv-
ing through that farmland, returning
from a fishing trip in Idaho. His father,
a highly goal-oriented person, turned to
his son and asked what he wanted to be
when he grew up. Without hesitation the
boy replied, “An artist.”
Taylor can’t say just what inspired such
early certainty in a path for which he had
no real role model, although being one
of a handful of kids selected for special
drawing sessions in elementary school no
doubt had an impact. “I just knew I loved
it,” he recalls. “It’s hard to explain—there
was just a magic to it.” And, he quips,
“Bob Ross wasn’t cutting it anymore!” re-
ferring to the host of the popular painting
show on public television.
Taylor’s father was at first taken aback
by his son’s seemingly sudden fascination
with art. Actually, Taylor had been draw-
ing all along. But as one of eight children,
his low-key activity had passed under
the radar of his father’s attention. Dis-
covering his son’s interest, Bryan’s father
sought out art classes for him in Salt Lake
City, which Bryan pursued through high
school. That led to a bachelor’s degree in
visual arts from Brigham Young Univer-
sity—and to a period of frustration with
the contemporary art world.
At the time Taylor attended BYU, a ma-
jor focus of the school’s art department
was post-modern, conceptual, and instal-
lation art, which was far removed from
the classical academic training in draw-
ing and painting that interested Taylor.
In fairness to the university, however,
he adds that the experience did teach
him the difference between fine art and
commercial kitsch. “An important part
of what I learned is that I wanted to do
something that went beyond the surface
of just pretty.”
Then a friend suggested that Taylor
take a look at a book by acclaimed painter
Richard Schmid. It was an eye-opener, he
acknowledges: “I realized, hey, there’s
this whole world out there!” Discovering
successful, masterful representational
artists in today’s world led Taylor to San
Francisco to attend the Academy of Art
University, where in 2005 he earned a
master’s degree in fine arts.

A Wa l k i n Pa r i s ,
oi l , 2 4 x 3 0.
Taylor found that the climate and qual-
ity of light of the Bay Area reminded him
of Italy. As a teen, he had spent two years
there doing missionary work, and today
Italy remains one of his favorite places
to paint. OLD TOWN SUNSET resulted
from one such visit. While his children
played nearby, he captured the scene in
an oil sketch, which he later used to cre-
ate a studio painting. The view is from
a hill overlooking the ancient Tuscan
city of Cortona, set among a patchwork
of farmlands and fields. It is the kind of
visually complex image that challenges
and inspires Taylor with its almost over-
whelming patterns of colors, movement,
and shapes. Identifying the most compel-
ling and important elements in a scene,
he then reassembles them in a form that
makes visual sense.
“It’s a little like the way a musician
might go into a forest and hear the ani-
mals making different sounds. He’ll take
a piece from here and there and make a
symphony,” Taylor explains. “He pulls
together the threads that create harmo-
ny and rhythm. What I do involves re-
alism and light, but also just that pure
exhilaration of creating those kinds of
harmonies.”
In fact, Taylor sees visual harmony as
a reflection of the sacred that lies behind
the beauty in each landscape he paints.
Illuminated by clear sunlight and danc-
ing with color, even busy city streets can
convey a sense of “reverence, respect, and
gratitude for the things God has created,”
he notes. Which is why he believes post-
modernism was not a good fit for his per-
sonal aesthetic and religious sensibility.
Describing himself as a lifelong natural
peacemaker with no desire to create im-
agery of dissonance or pain, he asserts,
“There’s a much greater need to make the
world a better place.”
On the artist’s easel at the moment is a
farm scene in progress. As bursts of cre-
ative energy propel him, however, he ro-
tates between multiple paintings. “I like to
bounce back and forth,” he smiles. Wait-
ing their turn against the studio walls are
more farmland images, Italian landscapes,
cityscapes, and seascapes from along the
California coast. As he begins a painting,
he works quickly, allowing the focused
intensity of his brush strokes to physi-
cally convey the power of his feelings and
the mood of a piece. Later he shifts gears,
moving at a slower pace to access a more
subtle sensitivity in rendering the sugges-
tion of detail.
C oa s ta l L igh t, oi l , 3 0 x 4 0.
Taylor approaches painting with a
combination of traditional techniques
and personal innovation, such as the low
toxicity level he strives for in his studio.
Because his children spend a lot of time
there, he does not use paints that contain
cadmium, and he has developed a method
of painting without turpentine, instead
using just pure pigments on canvas. The
result is a highly textural surface quality
that accentuates the hand of the artist. “I
may be a little old-fashioned,” he muses.
“I like the fact that you can see that a hu-
man hand touched and made the paint-
ing. There’s an Old World care to it.”
These qualities are especially evident in
works such as COASTAL LIGHT, a seascape
of a rocky shoreline with a veil of fog. The
painting’s soft lighting contrasted with
the energy of the churning surf is a meta-
phor for the necessary balance in life.
“That harmony is there, and it touches
me as deeply as anything I know. It’s the
fabric of my faith,” he reflects. “It drives
the choices of what I paint. I listen to what
I’m feeling inside telling me: This is what
you need to paint. So I go with that.” E
Colorado-based Gussie Fauntleroy also writes for Art
& Antiques, New Mexico Magazine, Native Peoples,
and the Santa Fean. S p r i ng S u n s e t, oi l , 1 1 x 14 .
As featured in SouthwestArt September 2010 © Southwest Art, Inc. • Reprinted by Permission • Permission does not imply endorsement.
SOUTHWEST ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

mark your B RYAN M ARK TAYLOR

calendar

AR IZO NA
SCOTTSDALE • Baskets & Pottery. Throughout
the month, Duley-Jones Gallery (480.945.8475,
www.duleyjones.com) displays basketry by
Francina Kraynek and Neil Prince along with
pottery by Michael Wisner.

SEDONA • Estate Sale. Turquoise Tortoise

Gallery (928.282.2262, www.turqtortsedona.
com) hosts an estate sale featuring paint-
ings by Tony Abeyta, kachinas, and jewelry
throughout the month.

Watercolor Paintings. The Northern Arizona

Watercolor Society presents its fall experimen-
tal watercolor exhibition from September
29 through October 19 at the Sedona Arts
Center (928.282.3809, www.sedonaartscenter.
com), with artists exploring unconventional
methods, techniques, and materials.

N E W M E XI CO
SANTA FE • David Pearson. Patricia Carlisle
Fine Art (888.820.0596, www.carlislefa.com) Golden Stream Oil 24 x 30
displays bronze sculpture by Pearson Septem-
ber 13-23.

Diverse Works. Blue Rain Gallery (505.954.9902,

www.blueraingallery.com) opens a solo show
for Erin Currier September 3-18, followed by a
one-man show of new landscape paintings by
Doug West beginning on September 24.

Going Solo. Manitou Galleries (505.986.0440,

www.manitougalleries.com) showcases new
paintings by Ethelinda September 3-17.

Two-Person Show. Marigold Arts (505.982.4142,

www.marigoldarts.com) displays turned-wood
vessels and sculpture by Jim McLain along
with new paintings by Skeeter Leard Septem-
ber 3-29.

TAOS • Studio Tour. The Taos Artist Organiza-

tion’s (575.751.0071, www.taosartist.org) third
annual studio tour takes place the weekends
of September 4-5 and September 11-12.

TE X AS
City of Vineyards Oil 18 x 24
DALLAS • Into the Night. A show of new
works by Burton Morris is on display at
Samuel Lynne Galleries (214.965.9027, www. WWW.G REENHOUSE G ALLERY. COM
samuellynne.com) from September 11 through
October 9.

Painting & Illustration. Norwood Flynn Gallery

(214.351.3318, www.norwoodflynngallery.com) G REENHOUSE G ALLERY OF F INE A RT
showcases new paintings by Sunny Jacquet 6496 N. New Braunfels • San Antonio, Texas 78209
and illustrations by Sallie McIlhernan from (800) 453-8991 or (210) 828-6491
September 25 through October 17. E

SEPTEMBER 2 0 1 0 // WWW.SOUTHWESTART.COM 3 3
Bryan Mark Taylor
Bryan Mark Taylor, “Summer Hills”
9” x 12”, Oil on Canvas

Bryan Mark Taylor, “Market Grays”

9” x 12”, Oil on Canvas

Bryan Mark Taylor, “Windmill Farm”

9” x 12”, Oil on Canvas

James J. Rieser Fine Art

Carmel-By-The-Sea, California
RieserFineArt.com
(866) 620-0530