The third annual V. Douglas Snow Memorial Collegiate Mentorship launched in Torrey this August, bringing three Utah college students to the Colorado Plateau to study under mentor Jana Parkin. The mentorship program, which was established in 2024, focuses on cultivating artistic discipline through direct engagement with the landscape that served as the primary inspiration for the late artist V. Douglas Snow.
Mentorship Details and Logistics
The current mentorship runs from August 4 through August 8, 2026, providing students with five days to explore the history and geology of the Colorado Plateau. Participants are housed at the new Entrada Institute arts facility located just off Main Street in Torrey. Each student receives a $500 stipend intended to cover costs for travel, food, or supplies.
This year's mentor, Jana Parkin, is an award-winning watercolorist who previously studied under Snow at the University of Utah. Parkin, who has taught art and design at the college level for 20 years, will work alongside students to share her creative processes and offer professional career advice. The program concludes with students presenting their work-in-progress to both an in-person and online audience.
The Legacy of V. Douglas Snow
The program seeks to instill a specific artistic sensibility: the belief that deep engagement with a specific place is its own discipline. This philosophy was central to the life of V. Douglas Snow, who spent much of his career painting the red-rock country of southern Utah.
Snow built a studio halfway between the towns of Grover and Teasdale nearly 30 years before his death in 2009, eventually making the location his primary home. From that vantage point, he painted the Cockscomb, a massive, serrated rock formation rising from the Awapa Plateau at the base of Boulder Mountain. Snow frequently referred to the region as the source of his inspiration and strength.
Past Mentorship Participants
The mentorship program builds on the success of previous years. In 2024, Jeff Juhlin served as the inaugural mentor for the program. During the second annual mentorship held last year, Jana Parkin served as the guest artist and mentor for two University of Utah students, Kaylene Eldridge and Ryan Allred.
During that second session, Eldridge, a landscape and figurative painter, focused on watercolor sketches to be enlarged later in oil or acrylic. Allred, an abstract figurative painter, used photography and sketching to translate the cliff faces and rocks into a visual language featuring vibrant blues, reds, and gray tones.
Snow's Professional Impact
V. Douglas Snow was a highly influential figure in the Utah art community. A native of Salt Lake City, Snow earned his BFA and MFA degrees from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan after studying at Columbia University. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome before returning to Utah.
Snow served as a professor in the University of Utah Department of Art for 35 years and held the position of department chair from 1966 to 1971. His work has been featured in Life magazine and is held in numerous prestigious collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Springville Museum of Art, and the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University.
Public Art and Style
Snow's artistic contributions extend to public spaces, including a 1964 oil on canvas mural commissioned for the Salt Lake City Public Library. The mural, located at what is now The Leonardo, was painted on canvases mounted on panels and measures 27 by 14 feet. The work underwent a complete cleaning and restoration in 2012 during the building's renovation.
His ability to meld abstraction with realism allowed him to express a deep passion for the Utah desert. This style was a hallmark of his career, which saw him recognized as one of the state's most significant abstractionist painters.
Entrada Institute Programs
The Entrada Institute continues to expand its offerings beyond the Snow Memorial Mentorship. The institute also provides Dark Skies internships and Writing From the Land residencies. The mentorship program remains a core part of the institute's mission to connect artists with the unique landscape of the Colorado Plateau.
