By Peri Kinder | [email protected]

As a child, Tim Sears did a fair amount of doodling in class, creating caricatures of teachers and drawings for fellow students. He didn’t realize it at the time, but he was learning art skills that he would use later in life.

Years later, Sears, recently named Holladay’s artist of the month, earned a history degree and was living in India when he decided to rekindle his love for art. In 2017, he found an online course that taught classical art training and Sears signed up. He would paint on his roof in India, developing his signature style which is to capture the spiritual in the secular. 

“Indians are very spiritual people, with sacred places and temples everywhere,” he said. “It’s not like the West at all. It’s very sensory with the smells of incense, the sights, the colors and the sounds. They treat life more like it’s a sacred thing.”

Sears brought that idea of sacredness with him when he and his family relocated to Utah. He lived in Park City for a year, and became enamored with the city’s mining history. He fell in love with the big, open spaces, the character of the area and the old barns, built by hand 100 years ago. 

Combining big skies with historical architecture, Sears captures everyday transcendence. He was drawn to the historic McPolin Barn in Park City, featured in several of his paintings. 

“I would shrink the barn and blow up the sky,” he said. “New barns are not the same. I do my part to help preserve some of the memory and the history. Part of the draw to Utah was the mountains. I’ve always loved big skies as well. I am originally from Texas. There are no mountains to look at in Texas, but we have this big sky.”

His art is featured in several galleries and Sears can’t keep up with demand. His work sells faster than he can paint. He believes his concept of permanence versus impermanence resonates with people looking for a feeling of nostalgia, tinged with the sacred.

Sears is inspired by Hudson River Valley artists, Thomas Doughty, Asher Durand and Thomas Cole. These men captured the reverence of the Hudson River Valley and other locations on the East Coast. He also studies with Jonathan Hardesty and continues his art training working with artists like Josh Clare, Douglas Fryer and Nathan Fowkes. 

Sears moved to Holladay a couple of years ago with his wife and three children. He doesn’t know if it’s fortuitous or if he’s just lucky, but Sears is living his best life, doing what he loves. He enjoys studying spirituality, art and culture, reading and spending time with his family. 

His paintings can be found in Park City and you can visit his website at TimSearsArt.com