Kirt Harmon Documentary

One of my young friends asked if she could do a documentary of me and my art for a school project last year. It was fun to work with her through the interviews and filming. I soon forgot about it until one of my associates at work congratulated me on my documentary that he had seen on you tube! I really didn't know to what he was referring at first ... then I remembered Jana's project. Well, here it is ... enjoy! I think she did a great job!

Candice's Dolly

Last year, I had the opportunity to go to Alaska with my friend, Brett. His daughter, Candice, and her husband were in our group as well. This piece depicts her first encounter with a large Dolly Varden.

Nathan's Buddies

20 years ago, Nathan and I had the privilege of our first Alaska adventure, compliments of Gary Wright. He and his son, Colin, invited us to go with them to the Kenai Peninsula. One of the fishing adventures was to take a float plane across the Cook Inlet to a lake where Sockeye salmon were migrating upstream into a little creek to spawn.

We were not the only fishers there ... several brown bears were also interested in the tasty denizens. These two characters entertained us almost the entire day. Nathan even had a confrontation with them over one of his fish!

This year, Nathan and I returned again to Alaska together for another fly fishing adventure! We didn't have any intimate encounters with bears this trip like in years past, but one bear did find us curious enough to check us out several times during our wade into his "fishing grounds". He was just leery enough of us to give us "wide birth" though. It was fun to know that he was always around and interested in what we were doing!

Enjoy!

Misty Morning Elk

A friend of mine gave me a photo of this majestic royal elk crossing a river on a crisp September morning last year. I loved the early morning fog and light. Hope I captured the beauty and raw nature of the moment!

Christmas stories by candlelight

Each year I do a "Christmas" painting that we use for our family Christmas card. This is the 2014 version. I wanted to do an old fashioned "scripture by candlelight" composition. I had done one similar to this one years ago as a study with Jerry Yarnell. Hope you enjoy ...

Portland Temple

Nathan and Holly sent me some beautiful photos of the Portland Temple that they took while there recently. This is "their" temple and I just had to get it onto canvas for them!

Ellie's Day

Our grand daughter, Ellie, chose to be baptized last month. She lives up in Seattle, so I was able to go up and attend the service. After the ordinance, we went over to the Bellevue LDS Temple for some photos since it was so close to the Stake Center. When I browsed my photos upon my return home, I realized that I just had to paint this one! What a beautiful girl on a beautiful day!

Tell me the stories of Jesus

Several years ago, I went to Seattle to meet our newest grandson, Matthew, right after he was born. I immediately fell in love with the little guy! While there, I also got to play with and read a new book that Grammy had sent along to Rachelle’s older children. At the time, I did not know that Cory had taken a photo of the experience (see below). He later sent it to me … I filed it away in my “Grandkids” file for affectionate viewing later!

This year, the LDS church sent out a “call for artists” to participate in the Fine Art event with the theme, “Tell me the stories of Jesus”.

I immediately thought of that photo of me reading to Rachelle’s kids, and this new image was born (above)! It was a little daunting at first placing us in this scene, but after a few attempts, it became a fun and meaningful painting experience for me. 

I believe there is nothing more important we can do with our little ones than to tell them the stories of Jesus while teaching them His gospel.

Mortality challenges us with weakness, sin and death. The “good news” that the angel brought so many years ago was that a Savior had been born for all of us … and He can ”fix” and help us navigate through all of these mortal challenges. May we all be able to tell the stories of Jesus to those we love!

 

Another view of majestic Machu Picchu!

I decided to try one more piece depicting the remarkable Machu Picchu in Peru! We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and I hope I have captured some of the drama and mystique of this special place!

Spectacular Machu Picchu

When we arrived at the base of Machu Picchu, it was pouring rain ... the locals called it, "raining llamas y alpacas". We were so disappointed ... we thought our trip was blown! However, we made our way to the top and the rain had turned into a drizzle. By the time we had hiked to this vantage point, the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking through the misty clouds that still schrouded the citadel. It was so cool!

What an incredible experience!

Old iconic barn

This is one of the many iconic old barns in rural Utah. This particular one is located in the West Layton area.
Sure enjoyed this nostalgic painting experience ...

Little Llama girl

On one of our lunch stops during our visit to Peru, we came on to this little girl and her llama. She was so cute! Our granddaughter, Katie, took some candid shots of her from a distance. In this piece, really tried to capture her innocence along with her relationship with this beautiful llama.

Uros Boys

During our visit to Peru, we had the opportunity to spend some time in Puno at Lake Titcaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. In the Puno bay lives a group of people, called the Uros, that still make their homes on floating islands made of the lake reeds. Everything they own is made of the lake reeds ... their homes, boats, nets, etc. They even use the reeds as a food source.

This happy, little guy lived on one of the floating islands we visited and I just couldn't resist painting his joyful face as soon as we returned home!

Brad and Cisco

This is the third piece in my body of work called "Brads' Gang". This was a wonderful experience for me! Though horses are one of the most difficult animals to paint, I love to try! The southern Utah setting and Cisco's beauty made this a real joy to paint!

Austin and Chance

Austin Cooper, my nephew, sadly passed away last month. His parents asked if I would be willing to do a painting of him with his little son, Chance. Of course, I wanted to help ... humbled I did my best. I hope it brings comfort and peace to their family.

Ellie

The elephant has long been the symbol of the “Ivory” companies where I have worked for over 30 years. Our CEO, Clark Ivory and his wife, Chris have been called to serve as Mission Presidents in Romania beginning in July 2014, so in their honor, I wanted to paint my version of the majestic elephant.

My wife had the opportunity to spend some time in Africa this past spring, and came home with many fun photos of African animals. I have had fun painting many of them  … lion, leopard, wart hog, and gorilla so far. I finally worked up the courage to try to paint one of these unique creatures … the elephant!

It posed some interesting challenges not the least of which was how to make their skin look so rough and wrinkly! I had fun experimenting with several different techniques, and just making it up as I went along!

Last month, our group painting class wanted to use my painting as reference material and learn how to paint him as well! I think they really enjoyed the  experience.

This piece is currently being framed, by my friend Cindy Cima (who, by the way, does all of my framing  and who I highly recommend to you for your framing needs!). I will deliver it to the Ivory’s in the coming days! Hope they enjoy “Ellie”!

 

Grand View

One of my young friends asked if I could do a painting of his girl friend and her cousin overlooking the Grand Canyon. It was a fun project ... enjoy!

Translating the Book of Mormon

A couple of weeks ago, the host of  "History of the Saints" TV program asked me if I could paint a piece depicting Joseph and Oliver translating the Book of Mormon. He said that most of the pertinent art was not accurate. He wanted Joseph with elbows on knees looking into the seer stone (not shown) with Oliver, with quill and ink well, looking a bit weary. A candle was their light source and the plates were on another table covered with a cloth. This is my version of that description! It was another wonderful painting experience. Justin posed as model for both Oliver and Joseph while he was here for the Christmas holiday.