| Artist | Halee Roth | Resides | United States |
| Website | haleerothart.com | Medium | Oil |
| Follow the Artist | [email protected] | ||
| Themes | Contemporary Realism Realism Romantic Nature Art Nouveau Classical Life and Light, Death and Decay Beauty and Hope Motion Narrative Drama Expressive Fantasy Modernism |
About the artist
Halee Roth is an oil painter from rural Utah whose figure work feels familiar with dramatic lighting and classical poses. Halee received her B.F.A. from Utah State University in painting and drawing with an emphasis on the figure and art education. She studied art abroad in Germany and attributes her bold use of color to her time spent living in India before graduation. She then taught art at the secondary level, everything from ceramics and sculpture to drawing and art history.
In the years since, she has continued to paint the figure but has also pursued other art forms including mural work, abstract ink art, rock art, and landscape. Above all, she is devoted to the human form. Her style is self-evolved and stems from personal study of international contemporary and historical artists. She spent four years living close to Washington DC where she could study works in person. Her recent work is the product of studying landscape with Russell Case and studying color with Denis Sarazhin. She now lives in Bountiful, Utah, where she works in her studio surrounded by gardens and mountains. She loves nature and people. With a goal to cultivate hope in the human spirit, her artwork is a pursuit of beauty and the power within each of us.
“The ability to find beauty in the world around us and within each soul is a source of hope. Aren’t we all seeking hope? I seek beauty in nature and the human form. The figures I paint express the grace of the human form entwined with the grace of natural forms. Many years spent wandering gardens, mountains, and deserts, ever looking closer, have influenced the organic lines and shapes used in my flowing compositions. The balance of beauty and decay in nature fascinates me. The light that glows in human flesh and makes things grow is also in the dark earth, moving through the dead and dying, regenerating into life again. The colors I choose, while rich and bold in the light, are balanced by dark expressive forms of shadow and decay. The flesh tones I am drawn to represent a kind of inner glow and are not local skin colors, but color combinations created using thin transparent layers of color opposites. When blended optically, they create a third glowing color that cannot be achieved through mixing opaque colors. This light, a source of hope, glowing through layers of paint and layers of earth, is worth pursuing and I can find endless references to it in the human form and natural world”.
Artwork Themes & Subject Matter
As a contemporary realist, Halee Roth seeks to represent the figure as it would appear in space. She definitely takes artistic liberty to place the figure in a type of fantasy or fantastical natural space. This creates a kind of narrative with nature that, when combined with idealized color relationships, tends to feel romanticized. This romantic ideal is accentuated by the movement in the dramatic poses of the figures which are definitely influenced by her love of Art Nouveau.
The theme of Halee’s current work is life and light, decay, and a glimmer of hope. The contrasts of light and dark, pure and muddled, growth and decay, beauty and ugliness, are part of the human experience and she believes these contrasts are what make a piece feel complete. Like any good story about hope, you need some dark for the light to shine brighter. It is also fitting that nature finds new life in the decay of life already lived. “My dark expressive line work mimics sparse vegetation, adds contrast to the beauty of the figure, and directs the composition adding to the feeling of triumph over some darkness”.
Time and place are irrelevant to her pieces. The idea that it could be any time combined with the abstract nature of the environment means it could also be any place which makes the artwork more relatable. This also allows the Expressionist nature of the intense colors and loose strokes to take importance over the exact narrative. Halee also uses nudes because they are no longer confined by period wardrobe. She uses drapery for compositional means. It can add just the color pop she needed without compromising the timeless beauty of the figure. The use of draped figures can feel classical, which is just fine given that my process of layering transparent colors is very traditional.
CV
Education
2007
Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting and Drawing, Utah State University, Utah, United States
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Blue Nude Migration, Visual Art Institute, Salt Lake City, United States
Pop Up Art sale, Material Contemporary, Salt Lake City, United States
First Place, Women, The Creative Edge Competition, Eccles Art Gallery, Ogden United States
Friends of Friends #10, Odd Duck Studio, Provo, United States
Elevation Art Gala, Eccles Art Center, Ogden, Utah, United States
Reflections of Eden, Urban Arts Gallery, Salt lake city, United States
Salon 100, Springville Museum of Art, Springville, United States
The Beauty Underneath, Odd Duck Studio, Provo, United States
300 Plates, Art Access, Salt Lake City, United States
Statewide Competition, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, United States
Freedom Festival Art exhibit, Covey Center for the Arts, Provo, United States
Duo Exhibition, 15th Street Gallery, Salt Lake City, United States
Duo Exhibition, Bountiful Davis Art Center, Bountiful, United States
Group Abstract Exhibit, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, United States
Statewide Competition, Eccles Art Center, Ogden, United States
Her Perspective, Ramble Gallery, Buntiful, United States
President’s Art Show, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, United States
Faces, Eccles art Center, Ogden, United States
BEAUX Arts, Scottsdale Artists’ School, Scottsdale, United States
