Have You Seen This? Provo Airport mural blooms to life in time-lapse video

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

PROVO — The city of Provo has been hard at work improving the Provo Airport to make it more desirable for travelers, and the latest upgrade includes a stunning 400-square-foot mural.

Local artist Courtney Hart spent more than 2,000 hours planning, measuring, drawing, painting and installing her massive art installation at the airport that depicts a spring landscape featuring Maple Mountain and the Provo River.

A time-lapse video condenses the thousands of hours into just two minutes where the 10-by-37-foot oil artwork springs to life from a blank canvas.

This mural is one of three installments Hart has been commissioned to make for the airport in a project called "Through the Seasons," that is a testament to the beauty of Utah's natural landscapes. The murals aim to bring joy and inspiration to visitors to the airport.

According to Hart's Courtney Co. Fine Arts website, she was in discussion with city and airport officials for a year before taking 11 months to create the first installment of the panoramic mural that will cover three walls, each depicting Utah Valley from a different direction in a different season.

In total, the three-part mural that surrounds viewers will be a whopping 105 feet long and 10 feet tall and will feature native plants and animals, such as Indian paintbrush and lupine.

On her website, Hart said she hopes viewers can feel "a greater appreciation for art and its power. I want the viewer to feel enveloped in the painting, in awe of the scale. I hope they gain a sense of how art can cause you to consider beauty in a new way."

Hart's technique includes giving the painting freedom to unfold as she doesn't use a projector or grid to draw out the artwork. Her designs are freehanded to give it space to evolve, her website says.

"Painting for me is a conversation with paint," she said.

The first part of the mural is installed and can be viewed in the TSA queue area of the airport. A plane ticket is not required to see the painting.

In 2023, the airport unveiled a four-panel stained glass mural by Provo artist Jeanne Gomm that depicts Utah Lake. It is located on the upper level of the terminal in an area of the airport that is always open to the public.