The Brown Art Gallery in Springville will host an art show “Common Roots” from May 25 to June 25.
A reception to meet the artist W. Bill Brown will be held on May 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the gallery.
The exhibit will consist of more than 20 paintings of Utah’s state tree, the “Quaking Aspen.”
Brown, a 2002 graduate from BYU in Theater and Media Arts, had the honor of being the oldest graduate in the class that year. While going to school, he and his wife Marilyn opened the Villa Playhouse and the Little Brown Theaters in 1996.
During the ensuing years they produced 96 community theater productions.
After a devastating heart attack, Brown was forced to retire and give up the theaters. Thus began a new career as a painter.
His first completed painting was done in 2006.
Having completed more than 300 works of art since then, many have adorned the walls of collectors from Boston to Oregon. Brown started painting aspens after a visit to the Fish Lake area, where he saw what is considered the world’s largest forest of aspen trees. Approximately 47,000 trees comprise one of the largest living organisms on earth, all emanating from a common root system.
“Pando,” as the forest is called, is estimated to be more than a million years old, making it one of the world’s oldest living organisms. Many of today’s trees are more than 130 years old.
The Brown Art Gallery was founded in 2007 in an historic Main Street building on 274 South Main and built in 1895. The building was destroyed by fire in 2017 and restored by 2019. (Serve Daily submission.)
