Summit County Public Art Board's Favorite Local Pieces // Western Watercolors by Don Weller

In this blog series we feature Summit County Public Art Board Member’s favorite local art pieces. See Summit County public art through new eyes and experience what makes these pieces so special according to our Summit County Public Art Board members. Once you’ve read our blog, go experience these public art pieces for yourself! 

In this blog post we feature a favorite from Summit County Public Art Board member, Lisa Bedell.

Her favorite Summit County Public Art pieces are the watercolors by Don Weller in the County Fine Art Collection, the four pieces in the collection are All Over That Monster, Color Country Cattle, New Generation, and Ranch Roping Study #3. 

Lisa has always had a fascination with the West and she believes Don Weller really captures the West in his watercolors.

Don Weller grew up in Washington and was always surrounded by art and horses as he was growing up. He started taking art classes in college and after graduating, moved to LA to pursue a career in art. He worked as a successful graphic designer there where he created art for Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Reader’s Digest and more. He also taught art at UCLA before he decided to move to Oakley, UT in 1984 with his wife where he got back into horses, cutting contests, rodeos, ranch life, and watercolors. Don Weller’s art captures the detailed beauty of the natural world of Western America, from hills of rock to wide, green ranch lands, in animal subjects too, especially the powerful beauty of horses, one of the great symbols of the West. You can read more about him and his artistic process on his website, donweller.com. 

In his four paintings found in the County Collection at the Coalville Courthouse, you’ll notice that Don likes to exaggerate the movement in his Western pieces to give it life. He really captures the relationship between the cowboys and their horses and the beauty of the landscape in his pieces using watercolor. Weller places the viewer right in the center of the action, right as everything is happening, and the outcome is yet uncertain. 

You can view his piece above and on the Summit County Collection Traveling Exhibit online  and in person at the Summit County Courthouse 60 N Main St, Coalville, UT 84017.

Thanks to SCPAAB Vice Chair Lisa Bedell for the insight. Stay tuned for more Summit County public art favorites in the coming months, and learn more about the Summit County Art Board here.