Computer Systems Design and Studio Practice
MEGSYARTS LLC is a small studio on the rim of downtown Salt Lake City that treats a painting the way a careful systems house treats a working platform: prime the surface, test the mix, then build the thing twice as solid as it needs to be. From the flat at 2265 S State St APT 240, Salt Lake City - 84115-1402, United States (US), our painters take on portrait commissions, palette-knife landscapes and full studio tuition in blocks small enough to finish properly. See what the studio takes on this season →
The practice of MEGSYARTS LLC grew out of a simple observation: most commissioned painting fails not because a painter cannot paint, but because nobody planned the surface, the schedule or the shipping before the first mark went down. We borrowed our working habits from computer integrated systems design, the discipline that pays the rent, and we apply the same rigour to every canvas that leaves the flat.
A commission here begins with a written brief and a measured colour test, moves through two progress reviews, and ends with a finished piece that has been photographed, varnished, backed and crated before it is offered for handover. Nothing is improvised at the end, which is the moment most studios discover that they have run out of drying time. We would rather spend an extra week on the mix than apologise for a skin that has cured badly.
The same logic runs through our teaching. Lessons are structured like short build cycles: a ten minute demonstration, a forty minute working block, then a critique that names one thing to keep and one thing to change. Students leave each session with a physical sample board and a written note, so the progress is visible the following week.
Studio visits are by appointment. Write to arts@megsarts.lol or call +19898229205 and we will find a slot on the bench that suits the drying schedule of your commission.
MEGSYARTS LLC opens its spring commission window for portrait and landscape work with handover across the Salt Lake valley.
Each shelf below is a live service line, priced and scheduled from the Salt Lake City flat. Read the short note, then follow the service name for the full description, timing and materials list.
A single sitter, worked from life over four to six sittings, or built from a set of reference photographs when the sitter is far away. We start with a charcoal block-in on toned board so the proportions are settled before any colour is mixed. Prices depend on canvas size and the number of sittings, and every portrait leaves the studio with a varnished surface and a hanging wire already fitted.
Heavy impasto work built up with a knife rather than a brush, usually from sketches made along the Wasatch foothills. The paint is laid in three passes so each ridge of colour keeps a hard edge against the next. These panels are the most durable pieces we make, and they suit anyone who wants a landscape that still reads well across a bright room.
A six week course for adults who have never held a brush for more than an afternoon. Everyone works at a shared brush pot rail, and each week adds one skill: value, edge, colour, mark, composition, then a small finished piece. Class sizes stay at four so the instructor can correct a wrist or a mix before a bad habit settles.
Two hour clinics for painters who already work but keep producing muddy results. We build a palette trough of mixtures on the bench and test each one against a neutral grey card under daylight lamps. You leave with a folding sample chart of your own pigments and a short list of the mixtures that are worth repeating.
Twice each quarter the studio clears its calendar for animal work. A pet portrait week runs Monday to Friday, with the animal photographed or drawn from supplied references, then painted in a loose realist style on a panel sized for a hallway. The week format keeps drying times honest and lets us keep the price lower than a full portrait commission.
A finishing service for painters and photographers who have work ready but no clean way to present it. We stretch or mount, fold the corners properly, seal the edges, back the frame with board cloth and add a hanging system. It is the least glamorous line on the bench and the one our repeat clients ask for most often.
The first conversation is short and practical. We ask where the piece will hang, what light reaches it, and whether the room already has strong colour on the walls. From those answers we propose a size and a support, because a portrait that looks generous in a studio corner can look timid above a long dining table. Nothing is ordered until the size is agreed in writing.
The second stage is the study. For portraits this is a charcoal and wash rough on paper, for landscapes a pair of small oil sketches. You see both, we talk about what is working, and only then does the main panel get primed. This stage protects everyone: it is far easier to change the composition on a sheet of paper than on a canvas that has already taken three weeks of paint.
Progress reviews happen at roughly the half way mark. We photograph the work under the same lamp every time so the comparison is fair, and we send the image with a short note on what is still to come. The final weeks are spent on edge quality, glazing and the slow work of bringing the surface to an even finish rather than rushing the last ten percent.
Delivery is planned from the start of the commission, not the end. Every finished piece is photographed for our own record, varnished to the correct sheen for its support, backed, and either wrapped for collection at the flat or crated for shipping. If you need the work by a particular date for a gift or a reveal, tell us at the brief stage and we will build the schedule backwards from that date.
It would be easy to turn this studio into a portrait factory. There is enough demand in the valley, and a faster process would mean more pieces leaving each month. We have chosen not to do that. The bench is set up for one commission at a time on the main easel, with a second smaller rig for sketches and a drying shelf that is allowed to fill for a week before anything is varnished.
That decision shapes everything else. Because we do not stack deadlines, a portrait commission can be moved a fortnight without breaking another family promise. Because we mix our own grounds, a landscape panel can be supplied in a warm or a cool base depending on the room. Because the brush pot rail is shared rather than duplicated, a student on a beginner course uses the same tools as the person painting the commission next to them. The studio is a working bench, and the schedule respects the paint.
Tell us the subject, the approximate size and the date you have in mind. We answer every enquiry within two working days from the studio inbox.
The flat is a working studio, not a shop front. Please arrange a time before travelling so the bench can be cleared and the drying shelf respected.