Lyndsie Nash began oil painting during the stay-at-home days of early COVID. Four years later, she is exhibiting her paintings for the first time in a solo show at the Park City Library.Last month, the library hosted an opening reception for “Inward Outside,” its newest seasonal exhibition on view through Nov. 29. This 37-piece collection of Nash’s outdoor scenes rings much of the library’s second story. A painting of a young woman on horseback hangs beside a self-checkout station on the main level to entice viewers upstairs. Over slices of pie and glasses of orange-infused water, friends, family, equestrians and connoisseurs viewed the walls of paintings that include self-portraits, portraits, and studies of family members immersed in nature. A third of the paintings include horses and a handful feature aquatic scenes in locations from the Great Lakes to Hawaii. The paintings range in price from $305 to $3,600.  A Traverse City, Michigan, native, Nash has been immersed in the natural world since childhood. She embarked on a career designing outdoor apparel, then taught fashion illustration at California College of Arts before moving to Park City with her family 12 years ago. Nash paints from her in-house studio, which helps with her family balance while raising a son and daughter with her husband.Nash often develops her paintings from her own photographs, then she also does color studies and sketches. “The camera sees so differently than our eyes see, so the color range is different. I do use photographs, but I’m always interpreting them,” Nash said.“Color is a big part of what I do. In clothing design, I did a ton of work with color. Even though I’m very new to oil painting, there are so many aspects of my design career that I can pull in, and color theory is one of them,” Nash said. “I love to have a total mood for each painting and a color scheme for each painting that’s unique.”“Tropical Morning” shows Nash braiding her daughter’s hair as the child sits with one leg over a chair’s arm while eating a bowl of breakfast. Nash cited Edgas Degas’ painting “La Coiffure” as an inspiration. “My daughter is 14 now, and she still wants me to do her hair sometimes, so I wanted to capture that moment,” Nash said. “This is at my uncle’s house in St. Lucia by the pool,” which beckons in a bright blue background rectangle surrounded by palm trees.With titles such as “Canter Stride,” “The Crop,” and “Before the Ride,” Nash depicts myriad facets of the equestrian experience. “My daughter horseback rides, and our horses are out in Peoa,” Lyndsie Nash said. Her daughter’s creamy white horse, PacMan, is a popular muse. Credit: Galen DeKemper/For The Park Record“My daughter horseback rides, and our horses are out in Peoa,” Nash said. Her daughter’s creamy white horse, PacMan, is a popular muse, and the close relationship between rider and animal comes across in pieces such as “Kindred” and “Leaning Affection.” Barns, fences, pastures and mountains fill Utahn backgrounds while the curves and sharp angles of the animals attract eyes in the center.Nash’s daughter’s friends were enthusiastic supporters at the opening, thrilled to recognize and point out their companion in numerous works. Nash’s mother, who was also in attendance, appears in a couple of pieces. “Gathering” views her from behind wearing a blue dress with a basket in her hands as she walks along a path beneath Michigan’s bright fall foliage. Women and girls are generally Nash’s human subjects within natural landscapes, and the sense of communion shows through held pine cones, reflections in water, or the angle of a face into sunlight.While most of the subjects are her family members, Nash also painted some of the displayed pieces at Workshop SLC with live models. “They have some really great instructors come through there and you get to paint from life, which is a totally different experience than painting from my photographs,” Nash said. “Solar Eclipse” is one of these class-made pieces, showing a brunette woman wearing a gold button-up shirt with a celestial halo around her head that recalls religious paintings with similar rings of reverence. In a further extension of her affinity for art and the outdoors, this past spring Nash painted the mural, “Freedom of the Child,” in the Rasmussen pedestrian tunnel leading toward Jeremy Ranch Elementary. Covering both sides, 10 panels show youth enjoying outdoor activities throughout the seasons, and panels between the portraits are stripe art made by class of 2031 students at Jeremy Ranch Elementary, where Nash has taught volunteer-led art classes, “Masterpieces in Art,” for nearly a decade. The “Inward Outside” exhibition and sale runs during library hours through Nov. 29. Nash is also available for commissions. Interested parties can contact her at [email protected] post COVID hobby becomes calling for painter with first exhibit at library appeared first on Park Record.