By Al R. Young The Treasure is the newest oil painting to be added to the line of original artworks from Al Young Studios.

Click here to see a larger image of the new painting, read the artist's commentary, and look at the selection of prints--if any are available.... Read more »

Tags: The Treasure, 2012, Elspeth C. Young, Legacy, News, Oil paintings and prints, Pioneer Art Collection

By Nancy Young
Films and programs on this page are arranged seasonally only to suggest that viewing might be correlated with family reading, at-home vacations, and other activities.

We've tried to list only titles free of objectionable material.  Even so, we recommend that any production with which you're unfamiliar be reviewed before you gather the family round to watch it.  In a few instances, where we have listed a production that might be problematic, we've tried to note areas of possible concern... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Forgotten Films, Overview, Recommended viewing

By Al R. Young The A Beatrix Potter Christmas issue of The Storybook Home Journal is now available from Al Young Studios.  This issue features these regular sections:Decorating - Tucking Them Up (5 pages)Hearth - Some Tiny Canisters (1 page)Kitchen - Near Christmastime (6 pages)Music - The Tailor of Gloucester (1 page)Garden - Merry Christmas, Mr. McGregor! (3 pages)Workshops - Something To Please Everybody (4 pages)Garret - A Star By Which To Steer (2 pages)A Beatrix Potter Christmas is the 79th issue of the Journal, published bi-monthly since November 2000... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 13 No. 1, 2012, News, The Storybook Home Journal issues

By Al R. Young... Read more »

Tags: My Father’s Captivity, 2012, My Fathers Captivity, Overview

By Al R. Young This book is destined to become the classic POW story. If you want one of the five best books ever written about the POWs, this has to top your list. . . . It is a literary gem that places you not just on the scene but in the soul of a POW.  It is that rare book that I know I will re-read again and again.
- R. Mansell

I sat down and spent four hours straight reading it-- it's truly a wonderful job.  You have a gift.
- F. Carney

I love it.  It is the best and most beautifully written WWII memoir I have ever read... Read more »

Tags: My Father’s Captivity, 2012, My Fathers Captivity

By Al R. Young
It is the essence of captivity to isolate, torment, cripple, and destroy; not just for a time, but for as long as life endures.  The aftershocks of captivity can reverberate for generations.
When my father was liberated from a Japanese POW camp at the end of World War II, he weighed about 90 lb.—scrawny for any man, but skeletal for someone 6 ft. 3 in. tall.  But his weight was only a physical shadow of what had happened to him for 39 months of a cruel captivity consisting of two hellship voyages; a submarine attack; physical, mental and emotional starvation; innumerable beatings; forced labor; disease; psychological abuse; isolation; and six months of Allied bombing raids that devastated Tokyo, obliterated his prison camp, and killed many of his comrades... Read more »

Tags: 2012, My Fathers Captivity

By Al R. Young  The story told in My Father's Captivity begins with these words, which set forth the theme of the whole:Every story in this world is part of another story.  Before the beginning, it was decreed that it should be so by Him to whom all words and worlds belong.  If a story be true and truly told, no matter how small it is it will be like that story, greatest of all, of which it is a part.  There is but One Word in this world by which all other words are judged, One Story by which are measured all the rest... Read more »

Tags: 2012, My Fathers Captivity

By Al R. Young Three artworks by the artists of Al Young Studios are featured in the 27th Annual Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah Exhibition.  The exhibit is open to the public through January 18, 2013.

Elspeth's painting of Lydia received the Second Place Award for the exhibit.

Ashton's painting of Rhoda received an Award of Merit.

Hosted by the Springville Museum of Art, the juried exhibit features 166 art works selected from 318 works submitted.

Frames for the artworks were prepared by Al Young Studios... Read more »

Tags: We Heard Him Pray For Us, A Damsel Came To Hearken, She Worketh Willingly With Her Hands, 2012, Exhibits, News

By Al R. Young This blank-book journal sells for $32 (plus shipping) direct from Al Young Studios.  Printed in full color on heavy paper, the book is bound with black plastic spiral to rest flat when open.

Inspirations features 163 artworks along with 53 commentaries—written by the Artists of Al Young Studios especially for this journal—on such topics as their creative process, the creative environment of the Studios, technical approaches to their artwork, and inspiration from the works of other artists... Read more »

Tags: Untitled, In the Clearing, Anne Girl, Spring Rain, Journey's End, Enchanted Stillness, Bedtime Story, In The High Valley, Mountain Home, And I Will Not Deny The Christ, Sara Crewe, And My Soul Hungered, 3.00.0246.010, The Road To Melek, We...

By Nancy Young


At "The Violent Study Club," one of Betsy's planned poetry readings on a snowy night was James Russell Lowell's The First Snowfall (Betsy refers to it by it's first line in Betsy's Wedding).  It's a lovely, touching poem, and we include the first four stanzas here not only in salute to Betsy and Lowell, but to the first major snowfall of the season that's been "heaping field and highway" since about noon today.  (It arrived a little early for the gloaming part, however... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 6, 2012, Recipes by Nancy Young, Recommended reading

By Al R. Young

As our Betsy's Wedding issue shipped October 16th, we thought our readers would enjoy this real-life Edwardian wedding of Dan and his beautiful bride, Nettie, with her Tacy-like coronet braids (coincidentally their surname, like Tacy's, was Kelly); a wedding which took place just four years before Betsy and Joe tied the knot.  Excerpts from Nettie's wedding book are shared here by her granddaughter, Toni Langlais.  We met Toni, twelve years ago, just as our maiden issue of The Storybook Home Journal was coming out, and her correspondence has delighted us ever since... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 6, 2012, The Veranda

By Al R. Young We made our own whiteboard from two, 4 ft. x 8 ft. acrylic-coated hardboard panels.  The space for which the double-sided whiteboard was designed allowed for an assembly suspended from the ceiling, hence the two whiteboards.

To keep the supple boards from bouncing back in response to the pummeling of handwriting, we used 1x2s to construct a 4 ft. x 8 ft. framework and sandwiched it inside the two whiteboard panels, one on each side of the framework, back-to-back.  Both panels and framework were then encased in a frame in which thin molding holds the panels and framework in place... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Tools supplies and operations

By Al R. Young The Betsy's Wedding issue of The Storybook Home Journal is now available from Al Young Studios.  This issue features these regular sections:Decorating - And Be At All Content (3 pages)Hearth - And After The Dishes Were Washed (2 pages)Kitchen - That Terrible Question (4 pages)Music - How Short A While (4 pages)Garden - Anything And Forget-Me-Nots (3 pages)Workshops - Painted-White (2 pages)Attic - Living Richly Without Being Rich (1 page)Garret - Living In The Sunlight (3 pages)Betsy's Wedding is the 78th issue of the Journal, published bi-monthly since November 2000... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 6, 2012, News, The Storybook Home Journal issues

By Al R. Young Marie etait juive, a DVD by The Chemin Neuf Community, featured Waiting For The Promise, by Elspeth Young.  The painting is part of Al Young Studios' Women of the Bible Fine Art Collection.  The DVD was translated into 22 languages and distributed in 70 countries.... Read more »

Tags: Waiting For The Promise, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Elspeth C. Young


Betsy-Tacy (and Tib).  And since it's always in that order, Tib seems to be a parenthetical.  Even though the chocolate-colored house joined the Hill Street duo early on, it always stands a little aloof: it's on a different street; its stateliness almost makes it unapproachable; and its child occupant—little bewitching beauty, Tib Mueller—seems to suffer from a bit of the same problem.  Tib is not Betsy's first confidant; not the secondo in the Cat duet; not the first companion of choice... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 6, 2012, Recommended reading

By Nancy Young

Some days your brain needs a rest.  If you're in a workaday world or a school-a-day one, that time may be Friday night, the longest possible respite from the end of the work week and the ever advancing Monday morning.  There may be homework or yard-work coming Saturday morning, social engagements Saturday night, and church services on Sunday, but on Friday night, you may be able to go at least a couple of hours without thinking a whole lot—making these two films are a perfect Friday fit—especially at the beginning of a new school year and a fresh football season... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Forgotten Films, Recommended viewing

By Nancy Young
Kate Douglas Wiggin and her sister, Nora Archibald Smith, have been our companions all summer long.  While reading Kate's autobiography, My Garden of Memory and Nora's biography Kate Douglas Wiggin As Her Sister Knew Her, our home has been filled with dinner-table stories of Kate's early sallies into the Kindergarten movement, community theater at Quillcote's Barn, or her chance meeting with Charles Dickens on a New England train.  We've quoted their quips and read long sections aloud to any passerby—quite as besotted with Kate and Nora as they were with Dickens... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 5, 2012, Floral arrangements, Home quotes, Recipes by Nancy Young, Recommended reading

By Al R. Young The September 2012 issue of the Liahona magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, featured She Worketh Willingly With Her Hands by Elspeth Young as the inside front cover.  Elspeth's original oil painting is part of Al Young Studios' Women of the Bible Fine Art Collection.... Read more »

Tags: She Worketh Willingly With Her Hands, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Al R. Young The September 2012 issue of the Ensign Magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, featured She Worketh Willingly With Her Hands by Elspeth Young as the inside front cover.  Elspeth's original oil painting is part of Al Young Studios' Women of the Bible Fine Art Collection.... Read more »

Tags: She Worketh Willingly With Her Hands, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Al R. Young The Summer with Kate Douglas Wiggin issue of The Storybook Home Journal is now available from Al Young Studios.  This issue features these regular sections:Decorating - The Dear Dwelling Of Our Hearts (4 pages)Hearth - The Birch-Bark Vases (2 pages)Kitchen - True Simplicity (4 pages)Music - Will You Dance? (1 page)Garden - Miss Sawyer's Pride (3 pages)Workshops - The Dear Old Ladder (2 pages)Bookshelf - State O' Maine Girl (4 pages)Garret - At Finial House In Williamsburg (2 pages)Summer with Kate Douglas Wiggin is the 77th issue of the Journal, published bi-monthly since November 2000... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 5, 2012, News, The Storybook Home Journal issues

By Al R. Young Growing Light is the newest oil painting to be added to the line of original artworks from Al Young Studios.

Click here to see a larger image of the new painting, read the artist's commentary, and look at the selection of prints--if any are available.... Read more »

Tags: Growing Light, 2012, Elspeth C. Young, Legacy, News, Oil paintings and prints, Pioneer Art Collection

By Al R. Young And Thou Didst Hear Me is the newest oil painting to be added to the line of original artworks from Al Young Studios.

Click here to see a larger image of the new painting, read the artist's commentary, and look at the selection of prints--if any are available.... Read more »

Tags: And Thou Didst Hear Me, 2012, Elspeth C. Young, Legacy, News, Oil paintings and prints, Pioneer Art Collection

By Al R. Young
Today commemorates the 160th anniversary of the event this painting depicts.  The two courageous young women represented in this image saved stacks of precious pages of sacred text from a bloodthirsty mob hundreds strong.  In honor of the day (and with Pioneer Day coming shortly), we thought readers might enjoy just a few highlighted entries from Elspeth's extensive painting log kept during the painting process in 2011:
 9 August. 

I had a very successful photo shoot with the models for the Book of Commandments painting... Read more »

Tags: I Will Uphold Thee, 2012, Costume and props, Pioneer Art Collection

By Nancy Young
 Though it's a month since the most recent issue of The Storybook Home Journal, Our Mutual Friend, wended its way through the US Posts, it's been way too long since we caught up posting sans that venerable institution, so here's what we hope will present a reasonably creditable reparation. We didn't have space to include Elspeth's water-colored label that we used in our own version of clearing Old John Harmon's mounds, so we send it in its easy-to-download form here for anyone's personal use--whether gardening is involved or not... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 4, 2012, Beauty and home, Floral arrangements, Flowers and garden, Recipes by Nancy Young

By Al R. Young The Our Mutual Friend issue of The Storybook Home Journal is now available from Al Young Studios.  This issue features these regular sections:Decorating - A Nursery As Never Was Seen (4 pages)Hearth - And The Bright Scraps Of Velvet And Silk And Ribbon (3 pages)Kitchen - Seasoned With Bliss (4 pages)Music - Lizzie's Theme (1 page)Garden - Other Small Gardening (4 pages)Attic - The Sorting And Sifting (1 page)Garret - We Had Each Other (3 pages)Our Mutual Friend is the 76th issue of the Journal, published bi-monthly since November 2000... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 4, 2012, News, The Storybook Home Journal issues

By Al R. Young One piece of advice I received as a cub artist sounded quite savvy:  "Paint to standard frame sizes.  That way, you won't be out the expense of custom frames."

Savvy or not, the idea never worked for me.  When I compose an image, I do so in terms of the way the visual elements and the image boundaries interact, the objective being that of creating a particular mood, which correlates with the way the eye moves over the image.

I suppose it is possible to start with a fixed size and proportion, but I choose not to be constrained in that manner because the constraint creates a preoccupation... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity, Tips and techniques

By Al R. Young By Al R. Young

General Nathanael Greene, the brilliant commander of colonial forces in the south during the closing years of America's War for Independence, used retreat as a road to victory.

His strategy actually made an ally of the earth itself, enlisting in his cause the topography, climate, vegetation, and other natural features of the countryside.  Of his strategy for defeating the forces of Cornwallis, Greene wrote:   "I run as fast backwards as forwards, to convince our enemy that we are like a crab... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity

By Al R. Young

Annually, we celebrate two anniversaries associated with the founding of Al Young Studios.  Today's anniversary, the groundbreaking, commemorates the summer of 1997, which was our initial foray into work as a full-time studio artist.

We spent that summer working on a series of illustrations for Victoria Magazine. The three-part series, consisting of excerpts from The Country of the Pointed Firs, by Sarah Orne Jewett, appeared in the July, August, and September issues... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Studios anniversaries

By Al R. Young The Substance Of Hope, by Elspeth Young, appeared in an article in the June 2012 issue of the Liahona magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The painting is part of Al Young Studios' Women of the Bible Fine Art Collection.... Read more »

Tags: The Substance Of Hope, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Al R. Young The Substance Of Hope, by Elspeth Young, appeared in an article in the June 2012 issue of the Ensign Magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The painting is part of Al Young Studios' Women of the Bible Fine Art Collection.... Read more »

Tags: The Substance Of Hope, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Al R. Young Huldah, by Preston Kavanagh, featured Treasure The Word, by Elspeth Young, on the cover.  The painting is part of Al Young Studios' Women of the Bible Fine Art Collection.... Read more »

Tags: Treasure The Word, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Al R. Young One of the first major additions to the $10 easel, several years ago, was a retractable platform that serves as a step when the easel is used for a tall painting, and as a bench when we need more seating in the studio.


The platform rests on the top of the foot at the base of each side of the easel.  The top of the track for the platform consists of a 2x2 (labeled "top of runner track" in the foregoing photograph).  Note that the runner track shown, here, only allows the platform to be pulled out about 18 in... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Tools supplies and operations

By Nancy Young

" Putting down her pail, Emily thinned out the too lavish lilies of the valley.  She raked the dead leaves, clipped the long grass, and dug a hole on each mound, into which she sank an empty jar.  Taking her pail, she went to a nearby pump for water.  She filled the jars and inserted the still dewy bouquets."  Emily of Deep Valley

There are few books that capture the essence of Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) as endearingly as Maud Hart Lovelace's Emily of Deep Valley, which commences and ends with the sweet small town celebrations of the holiday... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 4 No. 4, 2012, Bread making, Holidays, Recipes by Nancy Young

By Al R. Young
High-resolution digital copies are available from the Studios for use as illustrations.  Use the serial number—appearing below the thumbnail—in requesting permission from the Studios (see links at the bottom of this page for detail).


The correct form of attribution when publishing an image is specified in the license agreement issued to the publisher by Al Young Studios.Guidelines for requests to copy or publish artworks created by the Artists of Al Young Studios

Guidelines for commissioning Al Young Studios to create illustrations
Return to this portfolio
Browse all portfolios
Browse Newsroom articles about Illustration
The original image is available for sale, please contact us for details... Read more »

Tags: Bearing A Child In Her Arms, 2012, Book of Mormon characters

By Al R. Young
High-resolution digital copies are available from the Studios for use as illustrations.  Use the serial number—appearing below the thumbnail—in requesting permission from the Studios (see links at the bottom of this page for detail).


The correct form of attribution when publishing an image is specified in the license agreement issued to the publisher by Al Young Studios.Guidelines for requests to copy or publish artworks created by the Artists of Al Young Studios

Guidelines for commissioning Al Young Studios to create illustrations
Return to this portfolio
Browse all portfolios
Browse Newsroom articles about Illustration
The original image is available for sale, please contact us for details... Read more »

Tags: Bearing A Child In Her Arms, 2012, People and Stories of the Bible

By Al R. Young By Al R. Young

Hiking in the mountains has been a favorite family pastime for many years.  When the children were much younger, Mill Creek Canyon was a favorite haunt because instead of having to work hard just to get to the wooded shoulders of the hills, trails were relatively easy, safe for the children, and started in the woods surrounding the trailhead.

Like most trails that snake their way up into the mountains, much of the time along the way was spent with exposed roots and hillside rubble on one side of the path and a view into the attic of the forest on the other... Read more »

Tags: Back Country, 2012, Inspiration and creativity

By Al R. Young Bearing A Child In Her Arms is the newest oil painting to be added to the line of original artworks from Al Young Studios.

Click here to see a larger image of the new painting, read the artist's commentary, and look at the selection of prints--if any are available.... Read more »

Tags: Bearing A Child In Her Arms, 2012, Elspeth C. Young, Heroes of the Book of Mormon Art Collection, Legacy, News, Oil paintings and prints, The Messiah Art Collection, Women of the Bible Art Collection

By Al R. Young
While men cultivate flowers below, God cultivates flowers above;  He takes charge of the parterres in the heavens . . .   ~Henry David Thoreau

Our valiant and anonymous May Day phantom sent another luscious bouquet yesterday, and our sole means of thanks is to share their beauty with all of you.  A happy and flower-filled May (of both the garden and heavenly variety) to all you from all of us at The Storybook Home Journal!... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Floral arrangements, Flowers and garden, Holidays

By Al R. Young I Will Send Their Words Forth, by Elspeth Young, was featured in the May 2012 issue of the Liahona magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The painting is part of Al Young Studios' Heroes of the Book of Mormon Fine Art Collection.... Read more »

Tags: I Will Send Their Words Forth, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Al R. Young As It Began To Dawn, by Elspeth Young, was the inside front cover in the May 2012 issue of the Liahona magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The painting is part of Al Young Studios' Women of the Bible Fine Art Collection.... Read more »

Tags: As It Began To Dawn, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Al R. Young I Will Send Their Words Forth, by Elspeth Young, was featured in the May 2012 issue of the Ensign Magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The painting is part of Al Young Studios' Heroes of the Book of Mormon Fine Art Collection.... Read more »

Tags: I Will Send Their Words Forth, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Al R. Young As It Began To Dawn, by Elspeth Young, was the inside front cover in the May 2012 issue of the Ensign Magazine, published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The painting is part of Al Young Studios' Women of the Bible Fine Art Collection.... Read more »

Tags: As It Began To Dawn, 3rd-party Publications, 2012, News

By Al R. Young
Several years ago, a good friend visited the studio and gallery. At one point during our visit, we stood a while in the loft above the studio. Four large tonal landscape paintings, after the style of the Hudson River School, filled three of the walls like picture windows.
My guest looked from painting to painting, and, whether moved by the sheer size of the artworks or influenced by something in the treatment of the subject matter, exclaimed with evident anxiety: "I wish I knew what I was looking at!"

Like so many artists, I thought, but did not say:  "I wish you did, too!"

For the first 40 years or so of my journey as an artist, I worked primarily in pencil and spent a few years on lithographs... Read more »

Tags: In the Clearing, In The High Valley, I Shall Be Whole, 2012, Costume and props, Inspiration and creativity, Tips and techniques

By Nancy Young

The last while has left us a little frazzled and frayed at our too-busy fringes, and consequently article-bereft, so we thought today to be an ideal time to smooth ourselves out, and tie up some needful loose ends.  First and foremost, we wanted to acknowledge these kind notes from subscribers from upstate New York, the East Midlands in England, America's Deep South and the upper Pacific Coast:  (Thanks so much, Flo, Rowena, Susana, and Mary Anne!)

"To all at The Studio, I just want to say I was talking to my best friend a few days ago and she had tried Nancy's recipe for "Wheaten Griddle Bread," and as soon as I could this afternoon, I made the recipe... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 11 No. 3, Vol. 11 No. 4, Vol. 12 No. 2, Vol. 12 No. 3, 2012, Bread making, Recipes by Nancy Young, The Veranda

By Al R. Young Recorded interviews with Al, Ashton, and Elspeth are now part of the online venue for the Ninth International Art Competition sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


Recorded last February, each interview accompanies the artists' paintings on display at the Church Museum in Salt Lake City, as well as the Internet site for the exhibit.... Read more »

Tags: The Miracle Of Forgiveness, A Damsel Came To Hearken, I Will Send Their Words Forth, 2012, Exhibits, News, Women of the Bible Art Collection

By Al R. Young The Mansfield Park issue of The Storybook Home Journal is now available from Al Young Studios.  This issue features these regular sections:Decorating - The Night Wind Of Heaven (4 pages)Hearth - Begging For The Pattern (2 pages)Kitchen - Worth Looking At (4 pages)Music - As Long As You Can Like To Listen (2 pages)Garden - I Shall Have Repton (3 pages)Workshops - The Gate Was Locked (3 pages)Attic - Living Richly Without Being Rich (1 page)Garret - The Plumb Line (3 pages)Mansfield Park is the 75th issue of the Journal, published bi-monthly since November 2000... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 3, 2012, News, The Storybook Home Journal issues

By Al R. Young By Al R. Young

I don't remember when I first heard the axiom:  Time is money.  The succinctness of the dictum asserts its own truth as though it were left over from the sunrise of creation, when simple sentences framed the making of the world.

It comes, instead, from the pen of Benjamin Franklin, and is part of a 1748 letter entitled Advice to a Young Tradesman.  The letter is signed with no more assertion than that of "An Old Tradesman," and this is the short paragraph to which the statement belongs:

Remember, that time is money... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity

By Al R. Young The $10 Easel in the studio has served well as the workhorse for painting projects since Ashton and I built it in September 2006.  And, like most of our do-it-yourself pieces of studio equipment, we keep modifying or adding accessories as projects require.  This post talks only about the easel's basic construction.  Future posts describe the add-ons.


In the early fall of 2006, we ripped up the carpet, padding, and tack-strip in the studio, kitchen, and pantry.  With dislocated furniture and forlorn kitchenware piled throughout the rest of the main floor as though we enjoyed living inside a garage sale, we took a belt sander to the exposed subfloor and spread a frosting of dust over the spectacle... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Tools supplies and operations

By Al R. Young
High-resolution digital copies are available from the Studios for use as illustrations.  Use the serial number—appearing below the thumbnail—in requesting permission from the Studios (see links at the bottom of this page for detail).


The correct form of attribution when publishing an image is specified in the license agreement issued to the publisher by Al Young Studios.Guidelines for requests to copy or publish artworks created by the Artists of Al Young Studios

Guidelines for commissioning Al Young Studios to create illustrations
Return to this portfolio
Browse all portfolios
Browse Newsroom articles about Illustration
The original image is available for sale, please contact us for details... Read more »

Tags: Not Knowing Beforehand, 2012, Book of Mormon characters

By Al R. Young Not Knowing Beforehand is the newest oil painting to be added to the line of original artworks from Al Young Studios.

Click here to see a larger image of the new painting, read the artist's commentary, and look at the selection of prints--if any are available.... Read more »

Tags: Not Knowing Beforehand, 2012, Al R. Young, Heroes of the Book of Mormon Art Collection, Legacy, News, Oil paintings and prints

By Al R. Young The online fine art gallery at www.alyoung.com now features the Pioneer Fine Art Collection, focusing primarily on people and events in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Elspeth's new painting, I will Uphold Thee, featuring the heroism of the Rollins sisters in connection with the first edition of The Book of Commandments, is among the first images in the new collection.

Each collection in the Commercial Portfolio represents an ongoing focus of endeavor... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Oil paintings and prints, Pioneer Art Collection

By Al R. Young
Far Away In The West by Ashton Young is the newest oil painting to be added to the High Valley Collection as well as the Pioneer Collection of original artworks from Al Young Studios.  Six fine-art print styles and sizes of this new image are now available at www.alyoung.com, ranging in price from $13.00(4x17.25 poster print) to $265.00 (reproduction giclee canvas).

Click here to see a larger copy of the new painting and look at the selection of available prints.

The image features the dream of freedom and peace that was dear to refugees from religious persecution on America's western frontier in the 1840s... Read more »

Tags: Far Away In The West, 2012, High Valley Art Collection, News, Oil paintings and prints, Pioneer Art Collection

By Al R. Young A complete set of open-edition prints is now available at www.alyoung.com for Go Forth To Meet The Bridegroom by Elspeth Young.  The new set of prints offers 20 additional print sizes and styles, ranging in price from $5.00 (5x7 poster print) to $191 (24x48.25 poster print).

Click here to see a larger copy of the painting, read the artist's commentary, and look at the selection of available prints.

The set of open-edition prints of this painting brings to 1,872 the number of prints and giclee canvases available at www... Read more »

Tags: Go Forth To Meet The Bridegroom, 2012, News, Oil paintings and prints, Women of the Bible Art Collection

By Al R. Young A complete set of open-edition prints is now available at www.alyoung.com for And My Soul Hungered by Al R. Young.  The new set of prints offers 46 print sizes and styles, ranging in price from $3.95 (4x5 poster print) to $834 (full-sized reproduction giclee canvas).

Click here to see a larger copy of the painting, read the artist's commentary, and look at the selection of available prints.

The set of open-edition prints of this painting brings to 1,852 the number of prints and giclee canvases available at www... Read more »

Tags: And My Soul Hungered, 2012, News, Oil paintings and prints

By Al R. Young

Fifteen years ago, I sat at my drawing table in the studio preparing to draw the last element I had planned as part of an image for a lithograph. The drawing had gone well. Even I was pleased, which isn't always the case when looking at a finished product through tired eyes.
As often happened, a few flecks of wax from the crayon had found their way onto the pristine surface of the limestone, and were homesteading right where I intended to draw some surf lapping over a beach. Because the errant flecks of wax had attached to the fine grain of the stone's surface, they could not simply be blown or brushed away... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity, Tips and techniques

By Nancy Young
 When I was very young my sister always won when we played Clue.  She was invariably Miss Scarlett—pictured on our playing cards as a film-noir starlet—young, glamorous, and forever unattached.  According to the rules, she always started first.  I was always Mrs. Peacock—elderly, stern and indomitable—widowed because she probably killed her husband so she could spend his money on the queen-for-a-day tiara and blue earrings she wore.  I always started last.

Of course there were the other suspects—Professor Plum who looked like Einstein after some serious time at the barber's; Mrs... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Forgotten Films, Recommended viewing

By Elspeth C. Young
One of the best gems of creativity and problem-solving advice I have ever received was given to me as I stood at a battered, drip-encrusted easel in a grimy painting studio at Brigham Young University.
My professor at the time hesitated to give demonstrations, and left our canvases alone so that we could develop a style of our own. What little he had done to demonstrate and tutor our tastes I absorbed like a sponge.  He taught us to savor the color variations of Cezanne, to learn from the indirect painting techniques of old masters, and rejoice in the thickly daring impasto of Carl Bloch, while also encouraging us to seek inspiration in the strangest of postmodern pop art... Read more »

Tags: Many Sorrows, 2012, Inspiration and creativity, Tips and techniques

By Al R. Young Elspeth received a purchase award for her painting of Jacob (I Will Send Their Words Forth) and Ashton received an award of merit for his New Testament painting of Rhoda (A Damsel Came To Hearken) at an awards ceremony yesterday in Salt Lake City.  Three pieces by Al, Ashton, and Elspeth hang in the center gallery on the second floor of the Museum's new "Make Known His Wonderful Works" Intentional Exhibit which was unveiled last evening.

The awards were part of the opening of the exhibit for the Ninth International Art Competition sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... Read more »

Tags: The Miracle Of Forgiveness, A Damsel Came To Hearken, I Will Send Their Words Forth, 2012, Exhibits, News

By Al R. Young Springtime in the Rockies is an uncertain season that sometimes begins in February and deals out valley snow in June.  This year, a milder than usual winter has frayed into the edges of an early spring, with sun-bright days made just for plein air sketching.

Last week included a lake-side jaunt with the Oquirrh Mountains (appropriately pronounced "ochre," like the pigment) to the north, the hazy spine of the Tintic Mountains perched in the west on the lip of nowhere, and the southern arm of the Wasatch asleep along the margin of the lake... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Tips and techniques

By Nancy Young

They were alluringly large and alluringly priced.  I didn't resist.  Six pounds of sour, and never improving clemmies later, have me revisiting the Greyfriars' Bobby issue for my marmalade recipe, and also making up this intensely flavorful concoction that wavers pleasingly between cake and confection, and lingers nicely on the tongue.  When early spring snow flies, it provides a quick trip to Provence, Florence, or Torrance.  It's especially transporting teamed with the orange-mascarpone spread coming in the springtime Mansfield Park issue... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 11 No. 3, 2012, Recipes by Nancy Young

By Al R. Young Forty years ago, I stopped to browse at a cart of discarded library books on sale for a song.  And while thumbing through the volumes I came upon this song that has echoed in my thinking ever since:

Who dreams shall live!  And if we do not dreamThen we shall build no Temple into Time.Yon dust cloud, whirling slow against the sun,Was yesterday's cathedral, stirred to goldBy heedless footsteps of a passing world.The faiths of stone and steel are failed of proof.The King who made religion of a SwordPasses, and is forgotten in a day... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity

By Al R. Young "If you would live a beautiful life have a beautiful farm," though not a precise quote from the Shakers, is certainly a concept they would have empathized with.  It is just as certainly a description of the world Carol Cordiale shares with her husband in their country acreage in historic upstate New York--as Carol describes it, situated "on a rise nestled between two hills with a brook flowing from East to West."  Together they have long cultivated an herb and cottage flower garden, raised sheep and goats, and even opened a little wool shop where, for a few years, Carol could sell the yarns she spun from the wool she gathered from her Nubian and Angora goats, and her llama, "Tommy-Hawk... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 4 No. 3, Vol. 12 No. 1, 2012, Floral arrangements, The Veranda

By Al R. Young Like the vernacular style in architecture, do-it-yourself tends to become more and more organic as time passes because modifications and repairs accumulate.  Perhaps nowhere in the studio is this more evident than the Landscape Easel on the south wall.

In fact, in 1992, the easel didn't even start out as an easel, but as a set of two, 10 ft. long, wall-mounted drying shelves supported by homemade corbels.  A 1x8 served as the bottom shelf in the set.  The top shelf was a 1x6 nearly 3 ft... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Tools supplies and operations

By Al R. Young Al, Elspeth, and Ashton spent this morning at the Church Motion Picture Studio. They were filmed for audiovisual commentaries to accompany the exhibit of their artworks in the Ninth International Art Competition.  The exhibit opens March 16 at the Museum, and online the following day.... Read more »

Tags: The Miracle Of Forgiveness, A Damsel Came To Hearken, I Will Send Their Words Forth, 2012, Exhibits, News

By Al R. Young

These are the tenets of our brush-buying:

     Ignore categories
    Buy in person
    Buy quality


Ignore categories

I frequently oil-paint with watercolor brushes.  In fact, I would oil paint with a broom if I thought it would give me the result I wanted.

However, it was not always thus.  For someone who dreaded school every day of the long years of secondary education, lest an unwitting infraction of an unwritten rule result in a trip to the principal's office, the categories in which paint brushes are typically arrayed in art supply inventories implied boundaries not to be breached... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Tools supplies and operations

By Al R. Young This installment of Studio Windows looks in to the studio windows instead of outward through them, but learning how to see with an artist's eye is still the focus.

In school, where words and numbers were infinitely more important than the making and viewing of artworks, I was taught to hold a pencil in a vise-like grip between the thumb and middle finger; the forefinger being placed on the pencil to steady it.  So strict were these requirements that in the hush draped over our first grade classroom the teacher paced up and down between the wooden tables where we strained and bowed our heads above our work, and struck our hands with a wooden ruler if she spied us holding the pencil incorrectly... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity, Tips and techniques

By Al R. Young The Rachel Ray issue of The Storybook Home Journal is now available from Al Young Studios.  This issue features these regular sections:Decorating - Clever In Little Comforts (4 pages)Hearth - You Must Have A Card (3 pages)Kitchen - A Little Feast (4 pages)Music - Miss Ray (1 page)Garden - Within Their Reach (3 pages)Workshops - The Door Of The Cottage (2 pages)Bookshelf - Anthony Trollope (1 page)Glass - It Was Dorcas-Day (1 page)Attic - Living Richly Without Being Rich (1 page)Garret - A Home For Literature (2 pages)Rachel Ray is the 74th issue of the Journal, published bi-monthly since November 2000... Read more »

Tags: Vol. 12 No. 2, 2012, News, The Storybook Home Journal issues

By Al R. Young The 9th International Art Competition and exhibit, sponsored by the Church History Museum, will feature three oil paintings from artists of Al Young Studios.  The exhibit opens Friday, March 16, 2012 and lasts through Sunday, October 14, 2012.

The original oil paintings to be included in the exhibition were selected from among 1,156 entries.


In 2009, the Eighth International Art Competition featured The Mother Of All Living, For Such A Time As This, and a stained glass window by Ashton Young... Read more »

Tags: The Miracle Of Forgiveness, A Damsel Came To Hearken, I Will Send Their Words Forth, 2012, Exhibits, News

By Al R. Young Alfred Ramsey Young was born June 5, 1919, in a small settlement known as Box, in the hill country of Oklahoma.  His parents were Samuel Peter Young and Olla Beulah Cole.

He was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his father was a career police officer.  In 1937, he graduated from Central High School, where he had been a member of the marching band.  Upon graduation, he received a music scholarship, but declined it because the full amount needed for a college education was wanting... Read more »

Tags: 2012, News

By Al R. Young As part of the first wave of Allied troops to go ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day, and upon being informed that--because the landing craft had drifted off course, the 8th Infantry Regiment and 70th Tank Battalion were more than a mile from where they were supposed to be--General Ted Roosevelt personally surveyed the unexpected circumstances into which misfortune had thrust him.  He did so while walking with the assistance of a cane and armed only with a pistol.

Having determined that the topography of the area was suitable for the landing of those waiting to follow the initial assault, he returned to the troops waiting where they had come ashore and declared:  "We'll start the war from right here!"

His stirring invitation to courage is truly inspiring, but it is his example that provides valuable insight in any attempt to do likewise when confronted with a problem... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity

By Al R. Young
This photograph of Alfred and his father, S. P. Young, was taken in 1945.  They had not seen each other for more than 6 years, during which Alfred had been reported missing in action and later designated a prisoner of war.  S. P. Young died 37 years ago.
Today marks their enduring reunion.
Read the obituary.... Read more »

Tags: 2012, News

By Elspeth C. Young
Spending a "Sawrey Summer with Beatrix Potter" last year, inspired my pen.  While working on that issue's Hearth article, I had the pleasurable experience of learning firsthand from the whimsey of Miss Potter's artistry and visual cleverness.  The article featured a pen-and-ink and watercolor lesson encapsulating what I'd learned by studying her work--Peter Rabbit in particular.  I little dreamed, however, that I'd be back at it again this year, creating my own original pen-and-ink productions for a new series of publications by my father which are soon-to-come, but so it is... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Illustration

By Al R. Young I built the Diptych Easel several years ago in order to complete a commission to create an entablature featuring a diptych consisting of two, 4 ft. x 8 ft. painted panels.  Even though the easels were created for a specific commission, the design can be modified or adapted as needed.
Each of the two matching easels in the set leans against the wall.  And since the lightweight framework of each easel is (when in use) clamped to the back of a 4 ft. x 8 ft. sheet of 5/8-in. plywood, the plywood doesn't so much rest on the easel as become part of its structure and stability... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Tools supplies and operations

By Elspeth C. Young

For artists, like me, who lean to the Caravaggistic in lighting, the phenomenon of the perfect "black" for a mood-setter within a painting, can be a bit of a pigment puzzler.  While many artists have a favorite black as part of their palette, I purposefully pass by the black section of the paint tube world—perhaps it's the loyal watercolorist in me—but I just don't accept the idea that black is simply #000000—zero color.  In my book, black is as rich and full as any other color, and as deeply reflective as white can be... Read more »

Tags: A Lamp Unto My Feet, 2012, Color, Tips and techniques

By Al R. Young  "We have a debt to every great heart, to every fine genius; to those who have put life and fortune on the cast of an act of justice; to those who have added new sciences; to those who have refined life by elegant pursuits. 'Tis the fine souls who serve us, and not what is called fine society. . .Society wishes to be amused. I do not wish to be amused. I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred. I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Home quotes

By Al R. Young Late one Saturday evening, after a long and intense week of painting, I came across these images while browsing through the Studios' archive. As first one and then another of these pictures filled the screen, I found myself instantly captivated and rejuvenated as I stepped into the miniature worlds inside each frame and found myself surrounded by nameless shapes and infinite hues.
The few minutes I spent looking at these pictures were as restorative as a stroll in the park. Even though I had spent a week rendering such things by means of paint blobs at the end of a brush, I wasn't even loathe to muse upon the techniques and phases by which I would approach the task of painting these images... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity

By Al R. Young By Elspeth Young

John Steinbeck once said:  "We do not take a trip; a trip takes us." Throughout the years in which I have been a professional artist, I have found that every painting is a "trip," and that each artistic endeavor is an exodus to new realms of understanding, delight, challenge, and opportunity.

Today commemorates the ninth anniversary of the beginning of the Women of the Bible Project—a collection of oil paintings celebrating women of the Old and New Testaments... Read more »

Tags: The Protector, 2012, Studios anniversaries, Women of the Bible Art Collection

By Al R. Young Some time ago, I received an inquiry from someone asking about the business end of being a full-time artist. The first question on the list asked how to go about selling one's artwork without "taking too much time away from the creative process."  The question is surely high on the list of any artist who  "turns professional," and if it isn't, it will be.

A lifetime of endeavor can be devoted to answering the question, but the following excerpt from my attempt to reply may be useful as a beginning:

Over the years, I have had to persevere in re-defining "creativity" so that my personal definition includes work involved in delivering originals and reproductions to the public... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity

By Nancy Young
 With this year's low snowfall over most of those of us accustomed to freezing flurries and blustery blizzards, there's little to miss about shoveling walks, navigating slippery roads or tending to frostbitten toes.  In the snow-free garden even freeze-dried pansies are pretty and there are delicious days that suggest spring.  For those aching to sled or ski or build snowmen, however, this year's so-far-quiet-winter (with emphasis in Utah on the so far, the snow's likely to arrive in time to thoroughly white-out the vernal equinox) is a bit of a non-starter... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Bread making, Recipes by Nancy Young

By Al R. Young January 6th is an anniversary at Al Young Studios; the anniversary of my first attempt to set aside and equip a place dedicated to creating artwork. We celebrate the beginning of that ongoing effort because the task of configuring, equipping, maintaining, using, and improving a fine art studio is an amazingly multifaceted and demanding endeavor; at least, it has proven so for us.  It's an endeavor that never ends.

My journal entry for January 6, 1981, says simply:  "This afternoon, I started building a drafting table – which I hope to complete tomorrow... Read more »

Tags: 2012, Inspiration and creativity, Studios anniversaries, Tools supplies and operations