Cody Clark

If you only go to see one exhibition at the Springville Museum of Art, this year or any other year, then you should stop in for a look at "Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting." "He's probably the biggest artist we've had here," said Nicole Romney, an assistant curator at the museum. "We probably won't get anything like this again for maybe the rest of my life. We're very excited about it."

The show, which opens Friday and runs through July 27, features 84 oil paintings and drawings by Thiebaud (pronounced "TEE-bo") that span his career in painting from the 1930s to the present. Thiebaud was born in Arizona and raised in Southern California (he's presently based in Sacramento, Calif.), but his Latter-day Saint family did live in Utah, near St. George, for about four years during his childhood.

"My mother's family were Mormon. And my great-grandmother walked across the Plains pushing a handcart with Brigham Young," Thiebaud said in a 2001 interview with the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art.

Thiebaud told interviewer Susan Larsen that he's no longer "involved" with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but that he values his LDS upbringing.

The LDS communities of his childhood, he said, provided "a very nourishing environment. I was what you'd call today, I think, a spoiled child."

Because of Thiebaud's childhood connection to the Beehive State, the museum will recognize him with its "Honored Artist of Utah" award at a special ticketed reception Saturday afternoon where guests will have the opportunity to meet and chat with the 87-year-old painter. (Though the reception with Thiebaud, from 1-2:45 p.m., is sold out, there is a free public reception from 3-5 p.m.)

A pop-art painter from the same creative realm as Andy Warhol, Thiebaud is most famous for his paintings of bakery confections -- cakes, pies and other edibles -- such as "Pies, Pies, Pies," "Bakery Counter" and "Around the Cake."

The Springville show features some of his pastry paintings, as well as some of his more recent work, including beach scenes and cityscapes, and some of his early art, including a rendering of Mickey Mouse.

(While in high school, Thiebaud was once a summer intern at Walt Disney Studios.)

Romney said that Thiebaud was probably at the height of his fame as a painter in the 1960s, but that he's never stopped working -- the exhibit includes one painting completed as recently as last year.

"He plays tennis twice a week," Romney said, "and he still finds time to paint."