This Is Not a Photograph - Y Magazine
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Out of the Blue

This Is Not a Photograph


At first, you’re pulled in by the luminous blue pooling in the glasses, the inverted reflection of the mountains. But once you learn that 3 Glasses is an oil painting, you’ll zoom in, looking for tiny brushstrokes.

For his hyper­realistic art, Patrick E. Kramer (BFA ’08) finds what he calls “mesmerizing imagery”—glowing marbles, a dozing child, a hallway resplendent with light. Then it’s “just a matter of putting the hours in”—sometimes up to 300—to re-create a photograph layer upon layer onto a canvas.

Kramer’s fascination with hyperrealism began in BYU art classes. “I always wanted to get more and more detail, so I just pushed the limit and tried to see how far I could take it,” says Kramer, a full-time painter in Orem, Utah. He will display his art in a solo show next year at the Trove Gallery in Park City.