Born and raised in Richfield, a rural community in Southern Utah, Phyllis Forsey Horne is noted for her evocative paintings of the Intermountain West.
Phyllis began her formal art training at BYU. She went on to study fashion illustration and couture design in New York City. Later, while raising her six children in California and Utah, she began directing her energies towards fine art. Over a period of several years, she enrolled in numerous evening courses, completed the Famous Artist’s Correspondence Course, and actively involved herself in “every art class and workshop available.”
Three decades later, she is recognized as a prominent and highly collected landscape painter. Her work is featured in numerous private and public collections, including the Utah State Art Collection at the Governor’s Mansion, the Springville Museum, the Salt Lake County Collection, Kennecott Copper, and St. Mark’s Hospital. In 1999, as well as 2006, she presented major shows of her work at the Springville Museum.
Phyllis Horne has fortunately received many awards for her work, including being elected one of the “100 Most Honored Artist’s of Utah” by the 2002 Cultural Olympiad Committee. She advanced strongly in the early years of her painting career, receiving numerous prizes. These included “Best of Show” and “First Place” at the Utah State Fair, and first place state and national award in the Gertrude Fogelson Mother of the Year Competition, for which she was honored in a ceremony in NYC. Later distinctions included the Springville Museum of Art’s Associate Director’s Award at the Spring Salon for her stunning landscape “Thaw”. Her artwork has appeared in Southwest Art’s “Best of the West” and “Art Values” columns. Phyllis Horne’s journey from her training in NYC as a fashion illustrator, to raising 6 children, to establishing herself as a highly collected fine artist has also been profiled by Ann Poore in 15BYTES ezine.
Phyllis F. Horne is represented by HORNE Fine Art, a gallery/studio in downtown Salt Lake City founded by her daughter, Karen Horne, also a professional artist, and son-in-law, Michael Rowley.
What Phyllis is best known for is her dramatic handling of light and her observant painting of trees and flowers. Many of her works capture the fast disappearing landscape of rural Utah. When viewing the paintings, we have the sense that we know that path or have seen that bend in the road. Her paintings evoke memory and a deep respect for place.
