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Show 8 p. Tire Salt Lake Ttiimne, Sunday, July 17,197? The art scene Straight from the brush comments By George Dibble I â- A traveler in town looking for a gift to take home to a relative or friend would do I well to look at a group of small watercolors by Lucile Voris in the lobby of the Hotel Utah. They are fresh str aight-f rom-th e- brush comments on- seasonal themes;. Utah marshes, snow studies and impressions of the Teton Mountains, that definitely delight the: eye witii ideas that •â- I are not overworked. The aquarelles are Mr. Dibble modestly hung in a quiet corner of the Voris Gallery which opened during the week with a display of works by well known artists of the intermountain region. Steve and Lucile Voris, proprietors of the establishment just inside the south entrance to the hotel, formerly managed the Four Seasons and the Wilcox Galleries in Jackson, Wyo. With two interior walls of glass and a sidewalk window space, there is inviting access for travelers as well as local residents from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Seven Nielsen has included a group of watercolors in his newest exhibit at Sylvester's. A figure in a fur cap has a certain flair and detailed treatment of another with flowing white hair speaks compassionately of age. An architectural relic mellows with a kind of shorthand that substitutes personal devices for tiresome visual searching. "The Wave," an oil is somewhat more than a routine account of masses of heaving water. Strong dark areas serve as a fulcrum from which restive movements are lifted. Foam-spent edges may be less germane to essential movements. Other pieces in the display this month: A modest sized oil by Anton Rasmussen (its the smoldering spot of low-keyed red that sets the piece in motion); Linda Wheadon's fruit still-life; a waterfall by L. Cannon. Ron Nishijima has two aquarelles â€" one in controlled brush style, the other a landscape "Square Top Mountain." Both are rendered on rice paper; an oil, "The Judges" is by Lo Andriese. Barbara Richard's interest in photography began as an informative tool for her painting. Then fascination with the film medium took the place of brush work during recent years. A collection of her recent studies is at the Atrium Gallery in the Public Library. The Minnesota born artist taught school in California before moving to Salt Lake City. The quest with brush and lens has much in common. Both range widely from representation to complete abstraction with perhaps the challenge to the photographer demanding a more ascetic approach to subject matter, discriminately eliminating as much of the obvious as possible. Both artists, however, may be persuaded in over-worn paths in choice and treatment. "Spring and The Old Car" is a much used object for painters and photographers â€" a decrepit machine, aging wooden walls, neglected weeds, etc. But the smothering confinement of a long corridor relieved with ceiling and reflected lights is handled imaginatively. Time, a perplexing element presses into the consciousness of space in a far-reaching harvest floor, "Sorenson's Ranch." The barn, shielded with rusting squares of sheet iron, machine tracks in the stubble and a persistent wind measured in . the cant of a lonely tree. Most lens artists come eventually to the ocean and a number in this show are managed with restraint, finding a resource in the tide's after calm â€" retreating fury engraving the firm wet sand as it goes followed by a giddy, bubbling evanescence that colors the exposed floor. I like the study of droplets of water on a window screen. Along with handsome still-life oil studies by Steve Fawson and Doyle Shaw at the Brushwork Gallery are two interesting pieces by Connie Niemann and a group of watercolors by Paul Elti Most exciting is a reminiscence of the old Saltair resort. Within the halo of muted monochromatic tones are sharper definitions of a faded past, more cogent reminders that constantly reward with stable nuances of tone and hue. I prefer the vein of these discoveries to the more explicit delineaton of a railroad yard which attests more to technical expertise than impulse or intuition. EUingson paints with a generous emotion-filled brush that may at times seem to skirt detail and particularization in a drive for cogent expression. But detail is there, enough and satisfying. The test perhaps is in the power of such works to fend off ennui and fatigue from constant visual association. Sjubtlety, understatement and implication are saving elements that rescue a | painting from what one writer has declared | the more or less temporary fate of any ! work of art â€" a point in time when complete memorization produces suspension of interest. |