Jutland by Kent Christensen

During my recent interview with Kent Christensen, for this month’s 15 Bytes Artist Profile, the artist said he was looking forward to moving his Sundance studio to The Leonardo, 209 E. 500 South, for a two-week residency. It begins today and continues through Nov. 28. Christensen plans to offer, depending on interest, two- or three-hour Master Classes in areas he loves: watercolor (his kind, see accompanying story), drawing (from a simple still-life setup for one class; another with a clothed model, given the windows in The Leo) and oil painting (from what the materials are, through traditional painting philosophies, setting up your palette, prepping painting grounds, painting from life, free form to abstract).

In addition, he’s just been notified by his London gallery that he will be exhibiting his newest work (which he’ll be painting during the residency) at VOLTA New York in March 2012, a satellite show held during the Armory Show – that large, world-famous art fair on Piers 92 and 94.

Jann Haworth, who many will recall as the artist for the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s album and now know as director of The Leo’s residency program, once exhibited with Christensen in Bristol, UK. “We share the same oddity in that we are both better known in New York and Europe than in Salt Lake,” she says. “We also share something of the same subversive tweak at/of the acceptable.”

There will be two hourlong opportunities daily to walk through the studio and talk with Christensen. And he will offer one or two free short workshops each day demonstrating his process, use of materials and his sequential stages in building a painting from thumbnail to finish.

“I look forward to whatever unexpected interactions occur while I’m there and to seeing how that will influence my work,” Christensen says. “I enjoy the collegiality of artists coming together and the synergy that is created.”

For details, call The Leonardo: 801-531-9800

Ann Poore

A graduate of the University of Utah, Ann Poore is a freelance writer and editor who spent most of her career at The Salt Lake Tribune. She was the 2018 recipient of the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Artist Award in the Literary Arts.