A table, couch, and many buckets of paint sit in a small studio attached to the back side of a garage. Acrylic paintings of various sizes fill the studio’s room. Most are depicting houses.
“Over the years, my art has changed, probably as I've just like with anything," Justin Wheatley said. "I feel like you learn as you go, and I think that they've become a lot more refined and more focused on what I think is important.”
Wheatley is the painter of the houses. He’s a Utah State University alum and now teaches art at an alternative high school in Granite, Utah.
Wheatley began painting his house portraits when he was a teacher at Cypress High School in Magna.
“I'd hear students talking about their home lives and stuff, and thinking about what's going on in all these houses, and kind of that cliche of the walls have stories to tell," he said.
Wheatley said his art teachers in junior high and high school inspired him to teach art.
Recently, his dedication to art got him a seat at the dinner table with Gov. Spencer Cox and first lady Abby Cox. They honored Wheatley with the Governor’s Mansion Artist Award.
It’s given to performing, visual, and culinary artists annually and has been part of a fundraiser to preserve the historic Governor’s Mansion.
“For the Governor's Mansion Award, it was kind of just a surprise email, one of those emails that I'll click on and read and be like, 'Is this for real?'" Wheatley said.
He said he knows artists that won it before, and in his mind they were on a different level. So winning this award wasn’t something he expected.
Wheatley's favorite painting he has ever done depicts a house balancing on the top of a paint brush. He said that the painting represents him in relation to his life.
“There's a series he did of paintings similar," said Camille Wheatley, his wife. "There's one on the wall over there that's just of rooftops, but it's a little bit abstracted, so it just looks like shapes."
She was excited for him to get this award. She said that art has always been infused into their family culture.
“I’ve always loved art. Justin's always loved art. I think we're kind of like similar-minded in that respect, and then like the love of architecture too,” Camille Wheatley said.
The other award recipient alongside Justin Wheatley was the indie folk-pop band The National Parks.
