Randall Lake, Artist's Studio 2012

Oil on Canvas
34 ½ × 28 ½ in. 

framed: 38 ½ × 33 ½ in.

Signed and dated lower right

After studying and working in Paris, where he converted to the LDS faith, Lake settled in Utah in 1973 and studied classical figure painting with Alvin Gittins at the University of Utah. Lake’s artistic evolution reflects his struggle to reconcile his sexuality with the expectations of his faith, family, and era. After coming out as gay, his work became increasingly autobiographical, confronting repression, grief, anger, and spiritual conflict with a directness that departed from the elegant restraint of his earlier paintings. Throughout his oeuvre richly colored, portraits, landscapes, and still lifes transform familiar subjects through careful observation and expressive brushwork. 

Painted in 2012, this intimate view of Lake’s studio portrays the space itself as a still life. Doorways lead through rooms crowded with paintings, furniture, textiles, books, and collected objects, while energetic strokes and vivid color convey the studio’s layered, lived-in character. Lake occupied four interconnected rooms on the top floor of Salt Lake City’s historic Guthrie Building for fifty years. Many of the antiques and everyday objects collected there reappeared throughout his paintings, making the studio an essential collaborator in his practice. In 2026, Lake closed this defining chapter and moved full-time to Spring City.