Discovering artist Bev Doolittle — now in our backyard
Nearly 50 years ago, Jay and Bev Doolittle visited the national parks of Southern Utah for their honeymoon. Almost two years ago they returned, but this time to live here.
In the 45 years between, Bev became a popular western artist, building a successful career from the sale of her fine art prints, many of which feature her signature "camouflage" technique that reveals hidden animals or American Indians within the primary subject of the painting. She is one of the most-collected artists in the United States and is known internationally, according to her publishing company, The Greenwich Workshop.
While the genre of her work is most often classified as "western art," there is a strong focus on the landscape and especially the native connection to it.
"We always loved the wilderness," Bev says. "Our dates were painting trips. Our honeymoon was out in nature."
Bev and Jay met at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where they were both studying aspects of advertising art. After they married, they pursued a career in the advertising world, working as art directors for Erwin, Wasey & Co., a major advertising agency in L.A. that included some high-profile clients like Friskies cat food.
But nature beckoned. They didn't like living in the city. They wanted to be closer to the beauty of the earth.
So they left their jobs, outfitted a camper and began an adventure as "traveling artists." They still have the hand-painted sign that once hung from the camper. It reads, "Jay & Bev Doolittle — Traveling Artists: Paintings and drawings from around the world."
This shift in lifestyle also fundamentally changed the type of art they created. The more illustrative work of advertising design was traded in for the expressive attributes of fine art.
"We wanted to see if we were self-disciplined enough to paint every day," Bev says.
They began traveling throughout western North America, selling their work in malls and outdoors shows at resort areas. They even sold some art right out of their truck.
While they found modest success, they remained "starving artists." One weekend they sold 45 paintings but only made $700. That's when Jay says they decided they might need to make adjustments to their prices.
Success, however, was just around the corner. In 1979, one of the art shows connected them with The Greenwich Workshop, which describes itself as "North America's leading publisher of fine art editions." The publisher invited Bev to bring whatever she had to show them.
"Whatever she had" was not a whole lot at the time. Bev really only had one piece she was comfortable showing, a little painting of one of her favorite subjects: horses. The painting, titled "Pintos," was only her second use of the camouflage technique.
She didn't initially design "Pintos" as a camouflage piece. Originally it was simply a few horses standing in front of a grove of trees. The trees just weren't working for her so she changed it to snow-covered rocks in the background.
Then that creative lightbulb turned on.
Bev noticed that if she changed the horses to pintos — sometimes called "paint horses" because of their large patches of white and color — they would blend in with the rocks. Essentially they would become camouflaged against the natural background.
"You just realize the horses have found you before you find the horses," she says.
Thanks to "Pintos," Bev signed with The Greenwich Workshop. "Pintos" proved to be enormously successful.
"It sold out in two weeks," Bev says. "That kind of launched my career."
"The magic there was the camouflage aspect," Jay adds.
The problem was that it was the only painting she had. There was no catalogue to draw from. It was a problem that would persist throughout her career. Because of the detail in her work, Bev did not quickly mass-produce paintings. This meant each painting had to be the next print to satisfy the demands of her publisher and clientele.
A visual connection
"Pintos" was not her only "hit." Nearly all of her limited edition prints have sold out.
"It got really crazy," Bev says of the peak demand for her art. "People were buying them for investment and putting them under the bed."
Another well-known work, "The Forest Has Eyes," portrays a rider on horseback followed by a packhorse as they cross a forest stream. Yet hidden among the rocks and trees are 13 native faces.
Or there's "Sacred Ground," which shows another rider on horseback followed by a packhorse as they ride through a grove of aspens. The detail in the trees, however, creates the illusion of three eagle heads facing the rider.
Bev acknowledges that she didn't create the idea of camouflage and she notes that not all of her paintings require that technique. She also takes care that it doesn't become "hokey." Each camouflage piece must be meticulously planned so it doesn't just appear as a gimmick.
Yet Bev enjoys the idea of "deception" in her camouflage pieces as it allows her to guide her viewers through the painting. She likes the narrative and purpose it lends to her work, especially in what it says about the wilderness and the native relationship to nature.
"That's a way we weave that philosophical idea that we can be more connected to the earth in a visual way," Jay adds.
In addition to the camouflage paintings, Bev's work also references the mystical ties of American Indians to other living things. In "Spirit of the Grizzly" an Indian wearing a bearskin coat is reflected in the water as an actual grizzly while "Let My Spirit Soar" features an Indian reflection in the water as a flock of birds.
The hidden images appeal to fans like Lynne Clark, a St. George-based photographer, family therapist and art lover. Clark says she enjoys the illusion, not just because it's fun to search for the hidden images but because of what they can represent.
As a family therapist, she likens Bev's art to the stories people tell that are reality in their minds but have an element of fiction to them.
“It isn’t exactly what it appears," Clark says of Bev's camouflage art. "In a way, that’s almost like life. We think it’s like this but there’s something else that’s deeper. She portrays that in her paintings.”
As Bev's art took off, Jay recognized his wife's gift. While he also enjoyed painting, he knew she had something special. So he chose to support her artistic endeavors, even modeling for some of her paintings.
Bev has also released five books of her art, including "The Art of Bev Doolittle," which has sold more than half-a-million copies of its hardback edition, according to her publisher. And she has introduced her work to younger art lovers through three children's books.
While her primary medium has been watercolor, in 2004 she began creating hand-pulled stone lithographs, a technique she learned from Utah-based artist James Christensen. The stark, black and white prints from this series quickly became rare with fewer than 20 pieces in some editions.
A few of those images are among the works that hang in the Doolittles' Ivins City home. Michael Foot, owner of Sunset Framer in St. George, was responsible for framing some of the art.
“One of the true highlights of my career in doing custom picture framing was meeting Bev Doolittle and earning her trust," Foot says. “I was humbled that she had the faith in a local business to handle her treasured art."
Foot said he appreciates that she trusted his impression of how to frame her art. He even had the chance to visit her home and see how his framing looked on her walls.
While many of her famous camouflage works hang on the walls, most are in print form rather than originals. She does have one prominent original, though. "Prayer for the Wild Things" has 34 different animals — from 26 different species — hidden in the scenery. It was created in collaboration with saxophonist Paul Winter due to their mutual admiration for each other's art.
His 1994 album of the same name featured actual "duets" with many of the animals pictured in Bev's painting. He traveled to a number of national parks where he improvised duets with the sounds of the animals there. A portion of Bev's painting appears on the cover of the album, which won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album in 1995. Bev was even there at the Grammys that year when Winter's album took home the award.
Southern Utah
The Doolittles spent most of their lives in California, having lived in the small town of Joshua Tree for many years before they decided to "retire" to Southern Utah — acknowledging that artists never really retire. Their otherworldly home in Joshua Tree sold to an executive from Facebook shortly after they moved.
When searching for a place to call home in the St. George area, they were initially looking around Snow Canyon State Park because of the natural beauty there. But they wanted somewhere with a little more space.
"We just stumbled on Kayenta and fell in love with it," Jay says.
The move to the Ivins City development has inspired some new kinds of creativity for the couple. After supporting Bev's career for many years, Jay has found an outlet for his own creativity in the writing of short stories. And just as he provided constructive criticism of his wife's art through the years, she does the same for his writing.
Southern Utah has also rekindled some of the couple's early artistic interests. The scenic surroundings speak to their nature-loving souls and Bev says she is feeling inspired to do some plein air painting — something of a return to the days when she and Jay would travel around in their camper, painting the scenes they came across.
That plein air painting may soon include some local red rock scenes. One of her recent purchases is a Southwest landscape painting by prominent Southern Utah artist Roland Lee.
Whatever she ends up painting, the important thing is that she will be painting for herself. If she ends up with a closet full of art, she may seek out a gallery to show her work, but for now the focus is simply on painting what she wants to paint.
"My whole career has been built on the limited edition print market," she says. "I just want to get back to painting and see where it goes from there."
Still, she remains grateful for the career that providing a living for her family and a chance to pursue her passion for painting. And she claims there was a little bit of luck involved, saying that she was at the right place at the right time.
Bev also appreciates how her art has affected her collectors.
She mentions one phone call in particular. It came from a woman who had been driving through the mountains when she felt compelled to pull off the road and examine a stand of aspens. The woman was sure she saw the images of elk hidden in the contours of the trees, just as she might see in one of Bev Doolittle's paintings.
"I've changed the way people look at things," Bev says.
Now she has the opportunity to change the way she looks at her own art.
Follow Brian at Facebook.com/PasseyBrian or on Twitter and Instagram, @BrianPassey. Call him at 435-674-6296.
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