BLACKFOOT — Working in New York City as a freelance illustrator for Manhattan publishing houses, Blackfoot artist J Ken Spencer was faced with a decision as the digital age began to drift into his world.
“I had to make a choice if I wanted to make the switch to computers or remain painting,” Spencer said. “I have always been a painter at heart rather than an illustrator.”
He always anticipated eventually transitioning from illustration to fine art and gallery work. Even as he was working as an illustrator, Spencer was also painting fine art.
Spencer is originally from Ogden, Utah, and met his wife while they were attending Utah State University. After graduating, they went to New York City. When he made the decision to focus on fine art, he and his wife also made the decision to leave the East Coast.
“My wife is from here,” Spencer said. “It became a pretty strong pull. We had three kids, and we wanted them to know their families.”
When describing his work, he said art can be full of “loose terms” and “general categories,” saying that he prefers to speak in terms of influences. He said his work has been primarily influenced by both classical work and impressionist work.
“The impressionist was trying to figure out how light affects things,” Spencer said. “That was their focus, how light bounced and reflected. Classical work, which impressionism rebelled against, was far more rigid in what defined good art and what a subject could be.”
An example, he said, was the thought of painting an apple tree sitting on a hill with the idea of showing how it is naturally, with the light that is hitting the tree, and the light filtering through the tree.
He prefers to work in oils for several reasons, calling it the most flexible of mediums in terms of the variety of techniques that can be done. He said it can allow for the very rough, heavy and thick layers of paint while also allowing for the very thinnest of layers.
“I like that it allows for reworking,” Spencer said. “Say I mix up paint, I have two or three days that the paint stays workable. I can also let it dry and come back days later with new layers. I can build things up. It is also the most luminous color-wise.”
He has been blessed to travel a lot, saying he loves to go on an adventure, but also loves to come home.
“There are beautiful things everywhere,” he said. “The search for beauty isn’t about going places; it’s a pursuit of life. I love that about the opportunity that art gives me, to see places and express that visually.”
He still paints and has works hanging in galleries, but keeping him the busiest these days is painting large works for individual temples for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Part of what the church tries to do is represent the local landscape around that temple,” Spencer said. “I recently did two large paintings, about 60 inches by 72 inches for a temple in Angola.”
He also teaches some week-long workshops, going someplace to teach a course in painting. He has done some mentoring as well.
For those thinking about a life of painting, he has some advice depending on how serious they are and what they want to achieve. He would encourage that person to get connected with workshops and classes and to have some fun with it.
“Buy a sketchbook,” Spencer said. “I would advocate for both a serious student and a hobbyist to spend time drawing. That is the foundation of everything visual.”