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From left, local Utah artists Donald Allan, Blain Frazer and Frank Maglby share few memories from their time together at BYU while attending the Second Annual Big Small Works Show Nov. 19, 2010 at the Brownstone Gallery in Provo. ANDREW VAN WAGENEN/Daily Herald

Ashley Franscell

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Martin and Melanie Eastwood, of Pleasant Grove, look at two works of art done by Utah artist Fredrick Stephens during the Second Annual Big Small Works Show Nov. 19, 2010 at the Brownstone Gallery in Provo. ANDREW VAN WAGENEN/Daily Herald

Ashley Franscell

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The second annual Big Small Works Show, featuring original art from 25 full-time professional artists, kicked off at Provo’s Brownstone Gallery on Friday evening.

The show, which runs through Christmas Eve, features more than 100 new works by the artists, all of whom are Utah residents, more than half are from Utah County and all of them make their living from their art.

Gallery owner Rob Brown said he started the show because “this time of year people are looking for gifts and like to have something affordable, but also unique, and original art is unique.”

There are no hobby artists in the show, and prices range from $200 to $2,500. All the featured works are 16 inches by 20 inches or smaller. The gallery also has a display of larger works ranging from $5,000 to $10,000. Many of the artists were on hand to greet patrons at the opening reception on Friday evening.

“Some are in their retirement years and their paintings are hard to get because they don’t paint that much any more, or they are so established that they are in demand,” Brown said. “And some of them are up-and-coming young artists.”

One of the most renowned artists in the show is 83-year-old Donald F. Allan of Mapleton, who worked in New York City for more than 40 years, selling his work in galleries there, before retiring to Utah. He specializes in still-life art reminiscent of Rembrandt, Jan Van Eyck, and other Old Masters. His work features dewy, ripe fruit in jewel tones, set in elegant, moody backgrounds.

“It’s realistic and pretty formal,” he said of his style. “I have always wanted to paint something that people could recognize, rather than having to guess at what it is.”

Some of the largest and most evocative work in the gallery is by Fredrick Stephens of St. George, a thin and intensely shy and quiet-spoken man who paints sweeping, moody landscapes with intense fields of rich color — purple trees, red skylines. His bold brushstrokes make the art textural.

“I don’t just copy the landscape, there is a little bit of me in there,” he said of his style. “I would say they are kind of moody with one cheerful spot.”

Mark Stahmann of Orem is one of the up-and-coming artists featured in the gallery, having been a full-time painter for only three years.

“Previous to this I thought I wanted to be a doctor, but I found out that it wasn’t that I wanted to fix the human body, it was that I wanted to portray the human condition,” he said.

He described his style as “very much a realist or a naturalist. If someone had dirty feet, I would paint them with dirty feet. If I can portray people in a realistic manner then I can get to more subtle things, such as emotion, and really communicate with people powerfully in that way.”

• Caleb Warnock can be reached at cwarnock@heraldextra.com.