As a child, V. Douglas Snow loved to spend time outside drawing. His passion for art continued for 82 years, up until his death Tuesday.
Snow, a former art professor and chairman of the U’s art department, died in a rollover car accident in Sevier County. He was a nationally renowned painter of landscapes. He especially loved to paint Utah landscapes because he felt so inspired by what surrounded him.
“He loved the land, absolutely loved the land,” said Turkey Stremmel, owner of the Stremmel Gallery in Reno, Nev., where Snow’s paintings are on display.
Snow had many opportunities to remain on the East Coast to pursue a career, but he returned to Utah after studying art in New York City and Rome to be able to teach others what he loved.
“I think it just grabbed him,” said Allen Dodworth, a Utah art appraiser. “The desert was his place. He just kept going back and back and back.”
Dodworth said he got to know Snow about 10 years ago when they worked on an art show exhibiting Snow’s work at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Dodworth found Snow to be a quiet, serious man with a light touch and a dry sense of humor.
Snow loved to walk and hike while taking notes, looking at the changes of the sky, studying the fog on the mountains and observing the light breaking through the clouds, Stremmel said.
Stremmel said she met Snow 25 years ago when she and her husband, an art auctioneer, came to Salt Lake City for an auction. They invited Snow to Reno and began handling his work and building a relationship with him.
“(Snow) is truly one of the greatest giants in the art world that I know of,” Stremmel said. “His heart was as big as the state of Utah.”
As an art professor at the U for more than 30 years, Snow influenced many young artists, one of whom became a good friend throughout his life. Tony Smith, a retired art professor, was a student during Snow’s first years at the U and said that even in his early years as a teacher, Snow was inspiring.
“I just followed Doug, he was like a surrogate father to me,” Smith said. “I think if I hadn’t met Doug, I might just be a criminal.”
Snow was not just an acclaimed artist. A medium-sized, slightly built man, he loved to play basketball. He hated to lose at ping-pong or chess and loved good conversation. He was once a pop singer with a local band and loved all genres of music, especially opera.
He was always patient, considerate and thoughtful with his wife and children, and that extended to his friends and acquaintances, Stremmel said.
“There was no compromise as to his feeling or his love,” Stremmel said. “It was always just a sort of encompassing feeling to be with him because he was so big, bigger than life.”
When Snow died, he was planning on painting one more mural, having painted at least half a dozen in his lifetime. Murals held an epic quality that fascinated Snow; the same thing attracted him to operatic and symphonic music. He liked the bigness, the grandness of scale, Smith said.
Dodworth said that the older he gets and the more that acquaintances die, he realizes that some memories might be lost, but Snow, he said, won’t be forgotten soon.
“He’s going to be one of those people that’s going to be with me for a long time,” he said. “A lot of people are going to miss him.”
Stremmel and Smith said they won’t forget their friend either. Stremmel said she never met anyone who had as much passion for the arts and for teaching.
“I think Doug has been Utah’s greatest treasure,” she said. “He’s probably one of the greatest (men) that I’ve known in my life.”
?Desert Fog Bank? by V. Douglas Snow