I grew up on a small farm in Southeastern Idaho, and had the chance to work with my Dad and Grandfather closely until I was fourteen. We had cows, chickens, pigs, and sheep, and grew hay and grain for feed, and potatoes as a cash crop. I was driving a tractor by the time I was six, and milking the family cow about the same time. Many of the paintings on my blog site are how I remembered those years.
I spent two years in Brazil on a mission for my church, then returned to go to college at BYU where I met my first wife. I didn’t go to Vietnam so I went to work on the Utah Highway Patrol to do at least some public service. Eventually we moved to Texas to farm dry Land cotton just in time to get in three years of farming on a large scale before being wiped out by a drought. This time when I returned to BYU for a Master of Fine Arts degree the images of farming life were still poignant. When I saw a few works by artist Gary E. Smith I was struck by the power of the farm figures he painted and knew I had to paint my own interpretation of my experiences.
I taught art classes at two universities in Utah, Utah Valley University, and Brigham Young University from 1983 to 1995. Classes included Basic and Advanced Drawing, Watercolor, Oil Painting, Art History, Humanities, and Ethics and Values. I wrote the curriculum for Figure Drawing, and taught the first classes at UVU. I designed, and cooperated with another instructor in sculpting the school mascot, a bronze 10 foot by 35 foot Wolverine and logo, which hangs in the main corridor of the Student Center at Utah Valley University. At Brigham Young University I was awarded membership in the National Phi Kappa Phi organization for teaching Excellence. Many advanced and graduate students returned and signed up for my fundamentals classes to 'receive instruction' they had missed when they had taken the classes earlier.
I joined the Utah County Art Board and later served as its President. I also served as Assistant Director of the Utah County Fair, and Chairman of Art Exhibit at Utah County Fair. I met my wife Kathy, and soon after began traveling to art shows around the Western United States showing my work and doing portraits. At a show in Kansas, I received the Charles Sanderson Award, Salina, Kansas Best Art. And have since been awarded 22 Best of Show Awards at State and Regional shows, and among the lesser awards, I most recently was given an Award of Merit for my entry into the Spring Salon, Springville Art Museum, Springville, Utah from among over 1000 entries.
Larry Christensen joined Pixels.com Licensing on May 3rd, 2011.
