We’re talking in artist William Kranstover’s Peoa studio when a man walks in the front door who looks awfully familiar. Why, it’s Randy Barton, the KPCW radio personality and theater manager at the Egyptian.“You don’t need to stand up for me,” Barton says when I rise to shake his hand. “How much are you making up?” he asks Kranstover. “About 50 percent,” Kranstover says with a laugh. He’s being interviewed for a story.Barton came by to say he couldn’t make Friday golf tomorrow. Kranstover clarifies that Friday is, um, today, not tomorrow, and they’ve both already missed it. Come Monday, Kranstover’s planning on fishing at Thousand Peaks and then they’ll see each other that evening for karaoke at Barton’s house, a weekly affair also attended by other artists. Does Kranstover have a favorite song to sing? “I like to sing the blues, but I’ll mix it up. You can’t just keep doing the same song,” Kranstover says.Decades before Banksy targeted Old Town Park City with one of his global guerilla stencils, an unknown artist called the Phantom Sculptor was gaining notoriety for pieces made from found materials that would appear overnight along local roads.Though Kranstover now acknowledges his role as their creator, he recalls years of anonymity, eavesdropping on unsolicited critique about these unauthorized works borne of his frustration with the cumbersome city approval process for public art installation. “The instant you were in the bars and the restaurants, people would talk about that piece of crap on Highway 224, or that wonderful piece on Marsac,” Kranstover says. He judged how good they were based on whether someone took them home. “I was offended when someone didn’t steal it.”Known or unbeknownst, Kranstover may be the most viewed artist in Park City. He and Malia Denali, his daughter, created the torch sculpture displayed at Bonanza and Kearns for the 2002 Olympics, thanks to a commission from General Motors. His studio contains a smaller-scale version of the torch that was given to the athletes as a trophy. Considering the Olympics’ return in 2034, he would certainly be interested in further creation for that event. A native Wisconsin, Kranstover was no stranger to arts upon his arrival in Park City. Two framed ‘45s on his studio wall recall time spent singing in bands as a high schooler. He erned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1969, then Kranstover secured a teaching position in Austinmer, Australia, that let him avoid the draft for the Vietnam War. He later found out his draft number was 273. In 1973, a friend from home told Kranstover he needed to come to Park City. “You wouldn’t believe this town,” the friend said. So Kranstover flew from Sydney sight unseen. He then started a pinball arcade at 419 Main St. The Golden Nugget Arcade might not have been the most fitting name, considering Park City’s rich history in silver mining, but the business, with its antique machines, enjoyed plenty of popularity while housing Utah’s first foosball table. Kranstover recalls he and his partner paying for rounds “like big shots” at bars with quarters earned from the machines. He became a Realtor in 1976 and tells of taking on two partners to purchase a 33-lot listing bundle in Old Town for $1,000. As he sold these lots, each commission bought him another month or two of life as a backcountry skier. In 2009, Kranstover purchased his Peoa studio, a building that originally housed the town’s cash store and butcher. “Kranstover Studios” reads the marquee fronting his studio on the east side of State Road 32. Kranstover lives in Summit Park with his second wife of 14 years and commutes to his studio most days. “It’s got a lot of cool energy, and not because of me, but because of the thousands of people who have come through here,” Kranstover says. The front-facing glass windows offer plenty of light. In line with his circadian rhythms, the midday hours of 11-3 are his prime painting time. Weekends are popular for visitors and he’ll prop a mom-and-pop sign out front.Two easels on opposite sides of his large central table hold works in progress. One commissioned piece shows the early form of a skier shooting into the foreground on a black canvas with a smattering of trees in back. His tabletop palette of acrylic colors beckons at his left on a sheet of plastic. He cleans his brush with the murky water in an orange 5-gallon bucket. He shows a smaller sketch of the future form his large painting will take. “80% of the painting process is stepping back and looking at it,” he says. Kranstover considers his artistic process an application of the “4 C’s,” an idea he credits to his friend Bob Burridge. “Concept, Composition, Color, Commitment,” Kranstover says. He estimates a piece such as this skier will take a week to paint.The culminations of this process shows in the scores of works from numerous styles of media on display inside and out. Sculptures rest in front of his studio, alongside old mink houses attached to a side barn, and interspersed between paintings indoors. He points out an amber resin-poured sculpture showing the shoulders up to the nose of a male figure resting atop a lighted pedestal that gives glow to the resin. “It’s called ‘Adam’s Apple,’” Kranstover says. Examination of the fill contents within the cast shows an apple placed in the neck. Kranstover remarks that titling pieces can be difficult and recalls when potential collectors have been put off by a title that doesn’t match their personal view of the piece. Still, he points out one painting where the bottom fifth shows farmland underneath a towering, approaching cumulonimbus cloud. Its brilliant white perimeter turns to more ominous violets and lavenders closer to the eye of the storm. “That cloud is called ‘Incoming,’” he says.He considers himself a post-modern Western impressionist. Regarding the post-modern tag, Kranstover says, “Vern Swanson, who ran the Springville Art Museum, labeled me that.” Kranstover’s painting series “Whirling Dervish into the Light” won first prize at the Springville Art Museum’s 2021 Religious and Spiritual Art of Utah show. “The West, that’s primarily my love for my subject matter,” Kranstover says, as his local subjects and found materials attest. Impressionist comes across in how he maintains a certain looseness of style, though he creates sharp, accurate figures as well. “The faster and looser I paint, the more impressionistic it gets.” Kranstover often focuses on the sources of motion or intrusion in natural spaces, whether humans, animals, buildings or the changing seasons. His collage choices can also make for apt comparison points. A 48- by 48-inch painting along the main back wall, “Dressage,” shows two brown horses nuzzling with their contours lined by old dress-making patterns. Kranstover is represented by 15th Street Gallery in Salt Lake, which is currently showing three or four of his pieces. “But they take 50% of each sale,” so he enjoys running his own gallery. “I can work my own deal out here. I can horse trade.” A back room with tin ceilings used be an ice storage and now features four walls with dozens of smaller pieces on display, including one of his black poodle, Macy, who enjoys studio visitors. His art sells for $100 for these smaller paintings on up. He estimates his pieces in homes, business and public spaces around Park City number in the hundreds.While Kranstover often uses pastels for his plein air pieces, acrylics are his preferred painting material. Acrylics are faster to set up than oils and Kranstover talks about the toxicity of using oil paint, the need for ventilation in studios, and how he saw contemporaries of his start to suffer effects from their prolonged exposure to oil paints. When I ask to what he might attribute his longevity, his first response is “Good whiskey? No, I’m kidding.” More seriously, he thanks his diet, meditation and an active lifestyle, which includes plenty of walking, fishing and skiing. Credit: Galen DeKemper For The Park RecordBoth of Kranstover’s daughters from his first marriage are artists who live locally. He has shown with Denali before, and Kranstover is pleased to announce that Aja, named after the Steely Dan album, will be showing with him in an exhibit that will debut next June at 15th Street Gallery. “She’s as excited as can be, because it’s her first big show,” Kranstover says, while he expresses a seasoned confidence for how his new contributions will come together. He points to a painting with a rabbit he and Aja collaborated on, describing the process as giving the piece back and forth after each has worked on it for a couple days. His mother’s family came from Ireland and Kranstover, his father’s German name, translates to “crane gatherer.” A large horizontal painting toward the front of his studio shows a siege of five white cranes in the process of taking flight. He has an affinity toward these prehistoric creatures that represent happiness, longevity and good fortune. “And you hear them,” Kranstover confirms with some squawks.This crane painting and most others are on displays without frames. Kranstover says, “Frames stop movement.” The unframed departing crane piece allows outward momentum to extend imagination beyond the edges of the canvas. He also likes to paint the sides of his paintings black.William “Kranny” Kranstover stands outside of his gallery in Peoa. Credit: Galen DeKemper For The Park RecordAs a member of the Midway and Park City gallery associations, as well as the organizer of countless gatherings over decades, Kranstover is an affable and thought-provoking host, clearly at home in his gallery of 15 years. He may not sculpt as much as he used to, but does not rule out the return of the Phantom Sculptor and is open for commissions. He says another installation of his local “Who’s Art” gathering could be coming in October or November. Those curious for more can visit Kranstover’s website: www.wjkart.com or telephone 435-901-2007.The post Park City’s best known artist is mostly in … Peoa appeared first on Park Record.