Students receive funds from URCO
Three painting students from the art department are currently working on research funded by a grant from Undergraduate Research and Creative Opportunities (URCO).
Andrew Williams, Whitney Leary and Chris Wawrinofsky received funding and are being advised by professor Gregory Schulte of the Utah State University art department.
The three are upperclassmen and are all enrolled in Schulte’s Advanced Painting Studio course, where they and other students meet weekly for group critiques, Schulte said. They also meet individually with Schulte as needed.
The URCO grant gives the students financial support to complete projects they would otherwise not be able to do, Schulte said.
URCO is a matching grant, so both the sponsors and the USU art department gave $150 to each student to provide $300 to offset the costs of the students’ projects, Schulte said.
Williams’ project is entitled “Large-scale Landscape Painting in Cache Valley.”
“I’m a landscape painter. That’s what I paint,” Williams said. “But supplies can get costly, especially when you’ve got this large of canvases and are trying to cover them with paint.”
For his project, Williams said he will complete eight oil paintings ranging in size from four to six feet high and three to four feet wide.
Williams said his love for nature came from his family’s experiences outdoors.
“I have a deep appreciation for the beauty of the outdoors, and I love to capture that which I find most beautiful,” Williams said.
Landscape painting is one of the oldest traditions in art, Williams said, and he said he feels Cache Valley is very beautiful and worth the attention.
Williams said he is specifically looking for landscapes that balance both organic or natural, and geometric or man-made, features.
“That contrast gives more visual interest,” Williams said.
Painting on-site is Williams’ preferred method of work, so he said he has taken pictures and will go back out to do the actual work when the weather warms up.
“My hands would freeze right now,” he said.
Ultimately, Williams said he would like to show the eight paintings in a gallery in Cache Valley because people here will be most appreciative.
“I don’t paint solely for myself. I view it as something to give to others and want it to be capable of being enjoyed by many,” Williams said. “I want people to be able to enjoy the catalog of beauty that makes up Cache Valley.”
Schulte said the other two students are doing less-traditional methods of painting, with Leary working in three-dimensional Styrofoam and light for installation art and Wawrinofsky focusing on mixed-media plexiglass construction.
“It’s great because all three are undertaking incredibly ambitious projects that transcend the boundaries of painting into other disciplines,” Schulte said.