From Cornfields to Cliffs and In Between: Daily Palette Artists Reimagine Iowa's Landscape

Since its launch in 2004, the Daily Palette at the University of Iowa has featured the work of over 3000 Iowa-connected artists, publishing their work online and encouraging a greater appreciation of the arts statewide.

In honor of its twelfth year, the Daily Palette is organizing a gallery exhibition at the Old Capitol Museum on the University's campus to celebrate two of Iowa's most important yet often under-appreciated features: its landscape and its artistic talent. From Cornfields to Cliffs and In Between: Daily Palette Artists Reimagine Iowa's Landscape is a juried exhibition that spotlights seven artists working in a variety of media who interpret Iowa's landscape and invite us to think about the state in new ways.

From Cornfields to Cliffs and In Between: Daily Palette Artists Reimagine Iowa's Landscape is on view at the Old Capitol Museum from Tuesday, April 26, 2016 to Sunday, June 12, 2016. This exhibition is made possible through the support of the following departments and organizations at the University of Iowa: the Old Capitol Museum, the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, the Graduate College, and the School of Art & Art History.

GRANT WILLIAM THYE
Early Morning Autumn, oil on canvas, 40" x 40", 2014

Grant William Thye is an Iowa and Chicago based artist who grew up on his family's farm in Grundy Center, Iowa.  He studied at Central College in Pella, Iowa and he did his post graduate work at Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois State University.  Grant exhibits his paintings throughout the United States, including in recent solo shows at Central College and the Dubuque Museum of Art.  His work has been published in books and used in ad campaigns, and it is a part of many private, corporate, and college art collections, as well as the permanent collection of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.  Grant's work focuses on the Midwest landscape; he considers how it changes in different light and weather conditions, he is inspired by the native plants, farms, and gently rolling hills, and as we can see in Early Morning Autumn, he reveals the beauty and power of the Midwestern sky.  Grant's work was first published on the Daily Palette in 2013.

My works have typically always had a certain reflective, dreamlike quality.  I believe this comes from not only the cartoons, comics, and story books of my childhood, but also working, in large part, from memory.  I believe this allows the viewer to form a more immediate recollection, and ultimately a much stronger connection, as if it were taken directly from their own memory banks.

The newer works are much more intimate and personal.  At first glance parts may appear somewhat realistic, but upon closer observation one can see unusual lines and shapes creating the otherwise familiar objects.  The viewer must get close and spend some time with each piece before they can truly appreciate all the hidden idiosyncrasies.  The same can be said about most things in this ever-changing time of instantaneousness, especially when getting to know others on an interpersonal level.  -- Grant William Thye

Grant William Thye's website