The new gallery and studio of Karen Horne offers Utah artists a concrete vision of an integrated artistic life. Karen Horne has managed to combine her life as painter with the need for studio and gallery space. Skylights in the studio offer natural light and after coming back to Utah from New York City, the studio’s space is abundant and now offers room for figurative still-life exploration.

In the gallery, which opened this past month, Horne plans to represent herself and her mother’s work initially. In the future, Horne wants to offer the community a series of themed group shows, and represent a handful of artists’ work.

The premier showing at Horne Fine Art features Karen Horne, paintings and pastels, and landscape paintings by Phyllis F. Horne. The gallery offers viewers a retrospective glimpse of their artistic lives. Both painters are included in “the 100 Most Honored Artists of Utah” at the Springville Museum of Art.

Most impressive in the current exhibition is Karen Horne’s crowd scenes in “Soldier Hollow I,” where people in mass are represented as abstract marks, drawing hatches of pastel, waiting in line at a 2002 Olympic Event. Every mark is expressive and intended on the medium gray-grounded paper. All the light comes from the sun’s reflection on white pastel snow. The shadows are the color of the cool gray paper and the central figure is highlighted in a pink sweater within the gray shadows of the onlookers.

This example of Horne’s color block expressionism show her passion for color theory and its affects on the viewing eye. Horne’s paintings represent stills of public life; the Utah Arts Festival, Brumby’s café, east coastal crowds and children at beaches. The viewer pays close attention to how Karen uses shadow to define the composition of the painting. These cool shadows define her focus on color theory and how the eye visually mixes colors and abstracts space putting Joseph Albert’s color theory studies into practice.

Phyllis Horne’s attention to abstract detail in “Evening Snow” includes light reflecting on snowflakes. Phyllis’s paintings inspire the viewer to place themselves in her forest, garden, season, and time. Her paintings have nostalgia behind them and carry excellent visual narrative. Her subtle highlights and intense color make the canvases glow. The gallery itself is warm and inviting and offers Salt Lake City a great space to experience art. Don’t miss this one every month for gallery stroll even though its off the beaten path.

Horne Fine Art is located at 142 East 800 South, or hornefineart.com , or call 533-4200 for gallery hours and appointments.

Mark Dicosola