Western artist Charles Dayton clearly recalls the exact moment art went from part-time hobby to potential vocation. “[Utah landscape painter] Karl Thomas came over to my house,” he says, referring to an event that took place more than 20 years ago. “He’d found out that I was doing some painting—just starting, just some basic things.

“I brought out a couple pieces to show him what I was working on—I think it was a mule deer and something else—and he just got kind of quiet. I thought, ‘He’s figuring out how to let me know I shouldn’t quit my day job.’ He was quiet for a second, and then he says, ‘Have you ever thought of doing this professionally?’ It was a paradigm-shifting moment.”

Thomas’ fateful visit took place when Dayton was in his mid-twenties and already well on his way to a successful organizational consulting career. He had earned a degree in history at Brigham Young University and studied Public Administration in graduate school at the University of Utah. He and his wife Jillian were raising a young family; fine art was not an obvious path.

Read the full article in the January/February 2023 issue.

The Blanket

Oil
36″ by 24″

“I work with a number of Native American women who are leaders in their communities. Their resiliency and goodness are inspiring.”

August Clouds

Oil
14″ by 18″

“The colors of the Wyoming landscape are often subdued, influenced by the cools in the vast, blue sky. This scene is near the family outfitting camp.”