{"id":84202,"date":"2024-07-22T11:50:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T18:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=84202"},"modified":"2024-07-24T12:44:08","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T19:44:08","slug":"from-the-grand-to-the-mundane-frank-huff-charms-in-david-ericson-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/from-the-grand-to-the-mundane-frank-huff-charms-in-david-ericson-exhibit\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Grand to the Mundane, Frank Huff Charms in David Ericson Exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oil<\/a>

Frank Huff, “Parking Lot,” 14 x 18 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s almost like Frank Huff, Jr. dares you to dismiss his work. Or part of it. Take, for instance, his painting of a nondescript parking lot. Why bother? It\u2019s not some social commentary, \u00e0 la Joni Mitchell, paving paradise and all that. There\u2019s no real judgment here. It\u2019s a rather mundane, suburban parking lot, divided by islands of green, trees to the back. Judging by the shadows, it\u2019s midday. The purple mountains in the background give it a little context\u2014the American West, let\u2019s assume\u2014 and a touch of grandeur maybe. Why bother with this scene? It\u2019s not exactly an ugly scene, but it\u2019s not particularly exciting either. And there\u2019s nothing in its execution to jazz it up\u2014no self-indulgent brushwork, the glint of sunshine or rain on asphalt, built up by gooey layers of oil paint. The paint is rather flat. The details are minimal.<\/h4>\n

And this painting is not a one-off. Look through Huff\u2019s current exhibit at David Ericson Fine Art in Salt Lake City and you\u2019ll find a rather dingy corner of downtown Salt Lake City, several more parking lots, a painting of concrete planters framed by a sidewalk and another glorifying the raised interchange of the interstate highway.<\/h4>\n

Born in Salt Lake City in 1958, Huff first learned to paint from his father, Huff Sr., a commercial artist. In the early \u201880s, he studied with Earl Jones, Alvin Gittins and Tony Smith at the University of Utah, and a few years later with David Dornan and Paul Davis. After some early successes at festivals and encouragement from galleries, he began painting full-time, mostly on site, whether in the city, the suburbs or the mountains.<\/h4>\n
\"Oil<\/a>

“Monument Valley,\u201d 24 x 30 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the David Ericson show you will find plenty of paintings of more photogenic locales, scenes from the American Southwest where Huff now lives (St. George), the reds and purples of shadowed sandstone contrasting with fluffy clouds and bright fields of sand and sagebrush. You\u2019ll find majestic, grand views of deep desert canyons, harking back to late 19th- and early 20th-century painters of the American West. If you like these scenes, you\u2019ll enjoy Huff\u2019s painting of them. But in a world of landscape painters, these are not what stand out, as fine as they may be. Rather, it\u2019s his tendency, a quirk if you will, of painting these parking lots and strip malls, odd corners and neglected nooks\u2014seemingly dull and boring\u2014of our built environment.<\/h4>\n

There is something intriguing in what Huff holds back. He\u2019s not some minimalist guru (which can be as self-indulgent as the maximalists), but he does hold back, looks for the bare bones. A watercolorist and an oil painter, he was the former before the latter and you\u2019ll find the sensibility of watercolors in his oils, which are brimming with light and avoid belabored surfaces. His compositions, though well managed and balanced, are not\u2014usually\u2014particularly detailed. There\u2019s more than a little Edward Hopper in his simplified forms and unadorned manner. And a tendency to paint the mundane in a new light. There\u2019s something off kilter about some of his compositions, and yet they hold together remarkably well. This fact stays with you, even as you move on to the next work.<\/h4>\n
\n
\"Watercolor<\/a>

The clocktower of the City and County Building identifies this urban scene in watercolor as Salt Lake City.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Even in the desert, Huff seems to challenge himself, and his viewers, looking for something in the turn of a muddy wash. You might think, Surely, if he\u2019d hike a little further or lift his head up to the horizon he would find something more \u201cappealing.\u201d But this is where he plants his easel, attracted by these simplified geometric planes and the subtle shifts in color. Just as he might plant his easel in front of a strip mall or old motel. He relies neither on bravura brushwork nor detailed realism to carry his work. Rather line and a subtle attention to atmosphere. Huff understands that there is truth in composition. A truth that can transform a parking lot.<\/h4>\n