printer-friendly

encore

Lone Horse #2

Phil Epp ’72 manages to fit miles of wide open space on to canvases that are measured in inches. Images of cobalt-blue skies, billowy clouds and lone wildlife are plucked from the scenery that has surrounded him his entire life: in his childhood rural Nebraska, in his adulthood Kansas and in the American Southwest, both muse and mecca to many artists.

His time at Bethel College has also affected his art. He credits Professor Emeritus of Art Robert Regier ’52 for not only influencing his interest to depict nature in art but also for his painting methods. “I took printmaking under Bob,” Phil recalls. “To this day, I think I still paint more like a printmaker than a painter.”

After graduating from Bethel, Phil settled in the Newton area and taught middle school art for 29 years. Now in retirement, he is able to devote more time to his art, which includes painting, etching and bronze sculpture. Phil has been exhibiting and creating commissioned work since the 1970s, showing his work in such venues as Wilder-Nightingale Fine Art gallery in Taos, N.M., the Navarro Gallery in Sedona, Ariz., and the Leopold Gallery in Kansas City, Mo.

Phil Epp '72 has been featured in dozens of juried, solo and multi-artist shows in galleries in Kansas, the American Southwest and across the United States. His Lone Horse #2 (above) was featured in a recent show at Wilder-Nightingale Fine Art gallery in Taos, N.M., and will be published in the next annual issue of The Collector's Guide.