About the Artist

When he’s not painting earth’s landscape to the light, color and brush strokes of 19^th century-like impressionism, Dan Thornton is designing green communities – a landscape "painted" with real houses, stores and workshops; libraries, parks and gardens nestled in village clusters surrounded by well groomed farms and natural habitat.

Born in Whittier, California, from childhood he grew in Southern California until his teens when his family moved to western Colorado. There he lived on a small, 30-acre farm outside Montrose, where he developed a passion for expressing the surrounding beauty of the earth and sky through oil painting.

He received his Bachelor of Art from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and his Utah State Secondary Education Teaching Certificate. He worked part time as an art instructor for Mesa College's Continuing Education in Montrose, Colorado. Later he taught high school art and special education for Provo School District in Utah.

He has had one man shows in Utah and Colorado and has displayed his work in many art exhibits and galleries throughout the Rocky Mountain region. A recipient of numerous awards for his paintings, Dan regrets one neglect: He wishes he would have kept better records of those who purchased his works. Two of his paintings in particular, he greatly wants to locate: Edge of the Forest, 11x14 oil on board sold sometime in the spring of 1979 to a "tourist" so claimed the gallery owner of the "House of Fine Art" Gallery in Heber City, Utah, (the gallery no longer exists); and the other, Early Morning Sunrise,  approximately 9x12 inches in size, oil on board purchased directly from Dan after it was displayed in the Brigham Young University Student Art Exhibit in 1975. The buyer was Jack West, an Interior Designer and Design instructor at BYU. Perhaps this one will be easier to find.

Thornton has had paintings published in various books, magazines and brochures. Some of his works have been reproduced into offset prints, and many of his more recent paintings are being reproduced in limited-edition giclée prints. In addition, Thornton is the author of Drawing on Creativity, a self-improvement manual for developing creative thinking and problem solving skills.

In the summer of 1990, Dan left teaching to become a self-employed artist. He worked nine years, full time as a free-lance artist supporting his family: his wife Zuleica and their four children.

Dan Thornton's original oil paintings and drawings have been displayed in a number of galleries throughout the western United States including: Biltmore Gallery, Los Angeles; Magadini Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona; Weixler Company, Salt Lake City, Utah; Lewis Gallery, Grand Junction, Colorado. In addition, much of Dan's work has been in Juried Art Exhibits like the April Salon, Springville Art Museum, Springville, Utah; The Fountain Hills Art Show, Fountain Hills, Arizona; The Ouray Artist Exhibit, Ouray, Colorado; and other shows and exhibits in the inter-mountain west. Presently his original paintings are displayed exclusively on-line in the Thornton Galleries.

Dan's paintings have received many awards and been published in several books, magazines and brochures. The painting After A Day at Dusk 24x30 oil on board was published in the BYU Today magazine. The painting Nauvoo, Illinois mid 1840's 24x36 oil on canvas was featured on the inside cover of the Ensign magazine, May 1994, and reprinted as an illustration in several published books. Over a million copies of this particular work have been printed and distributed throughout North America.

It was during these nine years living and working as a self-employed artist Dan also became an activist in environmentally-sustainable community planning and development.

He was a principal team player in the design and construction of an Agrarian City masterplan model that encorperates agricultural, commercial, residenial, and industrial development centered around pedestrian-friendly greentown / greenvillage community. Passionate about this design he and others conceptualized in 1992, he is convinced it has the best green design features of any architectural/urban development project yet constructed. In 1994, he presented his work before Utah State legislators during the Governor's Growth Summit hearings. He received a letter of endorcement from the Governor's Office, but after several years and countless hours consuming personal time and resources with no success to actually build a full-scale, live-work-play community prototype, Dan became financially obliged to seek employment elsewhere. Torn with disappointment he moved his family to St. Joseph, Missouri, in the later part of November 1998, and found employment working for United Airlines as a Flight Attendant in June of 1999. Travelling the world days no end, he values being home with his family.