PROVO – The City of Provo has been working hard to improve the Provo Airport to make it more attractive to travelers. Recent improvements include a stunning 400-square-foot mural.
Local artist Courtney Hart spent more than 2,000 hours planning, measuring, drawing, painting and installing her massive art installation at the airport, which depicts a spring landscape featuring Mount Nebo and the Provo River.
A time-lapse video compresses the thousands of hours into just two minutes in which the 3 x 10.5 meter oil painting comes to life on a blank canvas.
This mural is one of three pieces Hart was commissioned to create for the airport as part of the “Through the Seasons” project. It is a testament to the beauty of Utah’s natural landscapes and is intended to bring joy and inspiration to airport visitors.
According to Hart’s website, Courtney Co. Fine Arts, she spent a year in discussions with city and airport officials before taking 11 months to create the first part of the panoramic mural, which will cover three walls, each showing the Utah Valley from a different direction and at a different time of year.
In total, the three-part mural that surrounds the viewer will be a whopping 32 meters long and 3 meters high and will feature native plants and animals such as the Indian paintbrush and the lupine.
On her website, Hart wrote that she hoped viewers would “develop a greater appreciation for art and its power. I want the viewer to feel enveloped by the painting and in awe of its magnitude. I hope they gain a sense of how art can make you see beauty in a new way.”
Hart’s technique is to give the painting the freedom to unfold, as she doesn’t use a projector or a grid to draw the artwork. Her designs are freehand to give them room to unfold, her website says.
“For me, painting is a conversation with color,” she said.
The first part of the mural is installed and can be viewed in the TSA waiting area of the airport. A plane ticket is not required to see the painting.
In 2023, the airport unveiled a four-panel stained glass mural depicting Utah Lake by Provo artist Jeanne Gomm. It is located on the upper level of the terminal in an area of the airport that is always open to the public.
