This month’s cover artist: Lee Udall Bennion.
The cover image is based on a photo I took of a young girl who happened to waltz into the yard early evening just past Solstice. It was up in Idaho where I had gone with friends to help an elderly couple move their 250 cows from winter to summer range. The granddaughter, Sophie, was about 12 years old and had come up from Utah with her mom to help the grandma cook for the crew.
I asked if I could take photos of her while she was swinging and she said fine. I didn’t pose her at all, just watched and snapped as she played. I have lots of nice images of her and I will probably do a few more paintings from that set of images, but this pose when she stopped and looked away was by far my favorite.
I did a number of paintings of my own girls when they were about this age, just on the cusp of becoming a woman but still in many ways living the world of a little girl. Watching Sophie playing on the swing like a little kid, yet physically starting to blossom, then pausing to look out over the fence, all speaks to me of that moment that lasts a few years in a girl’s life (or should). 
I call it “Just Past Solstice,” because that is when we were there in Idaho moving the cows, and that is the moment in life that I am talking about—just entering the Summer of life.
Lee Udall Bennion is a painter who lives in Spring City, Utah with her potter husband Joe Bennion. Joe also works as a river guide in the Grand Canyon and Lee also makes and sells a salve called Mom’s Stuff Salve—Superfood for Skin (see p. 12).
Among these four things that they love to do, they make a living. u
Lee’s paintings can be seen in SLC at David Ericson Fine Art, 418 S 22 W SLC UT 801-533-8245
Her website is http://leeudallbennion.com
Lee’s Studio will be open for visitation on August 31, 2013 for the Spring City Arts Studio Tour.
springcityarts.com
This four-minute video gives you a glimpse of Lee’s paintings and life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR34Z7LnvXg