Visiting Artist Demonstration

Brandt lives and works from his home in Logan, Utah, where he and his wife Samantha reside. He’s been painting professionally since graduating from Utah State University in 2009. He currently shows and sells his work with galleries around the United States. Aside from his love for art he enjoys live music, playing guitar, travel, hiking, reading, movies, good food and the occasional Dr. Mario and Mariokart competitions with Sam and their siblings.

Artist Statement:
I paint the things that make me want to stop and take a look. My paintings begin with the visual world around me and a little imagination: a landscape, a stretch of highway, an old sign, a building, a car, a patch of evening light. These are familiar things, but familiarity can make us overlook them.

I work from observation, but I am interested in what happens when reality is filtered through composition, memory, light, color, texture, layers, and, when the painting calls for it, a little whimsy or humor. I want the work to retain a sense of the real while allowing something unexpected to happen within it.

I hope my paintings bring joy and invite the viewer to pause, look again, and find a little more wonder in the ordinary.