Randall Lake was born in southern California in 1947. A twenty-first century painter drawn to nineteenth-century realism, he paints still-lifes, portraits, and landscapes. He lives in Salt Lake City.

Lake spent his junior year of college teaching English at the Sorbonne. When the riots of 1968 closed the school, he studied art on the Left Bank. He returned to the University of Colorado at Boulder to complete his English degree in 1970. Later Lake received his MFA in painting from the University of Utah in 1977.

Lake paints his subjects from life, not from photographs.  He puts layers of wet paint over layers of wet paint to create his still-lifes, portraits, and landscapes. Examples of his work are Pewter Mug with Apples, Desert Floor, The Cross Country Skier, Rooster Teacup, and A Painter's Desk.  Lake's work is held in local and national collections.

Biography adapted from Artists of Utah.

Randall Bruce Lake is a fine realistic portraitist and figure painter who also does exquisite still-life and landscape works in his studio in the Guthrie Building in Salt Lake City, at a studio and home in Spring City, Utah, as well as elsewhere in California and Europe. A graduate of the University of Utah (M.F.A., 1977) and one of Alvin Gittin's most talented students during that period, Lake was also highly successful just afterward as a visiting member of the Department of Art studio faculty at the U. of U. Otherwise, Lake is a fascinating character who has taken a romantic inclination to “live“ in whatever time he wishes. A painterly master of the oil brush, Lake has managed to be not just the neighbor of Steve Fawson and other Guthrie artists but also a “kindred spirit“ with John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, or William Chase.

Biography courtesy Artists of Utah

Newspaper Articles

"Coming Up: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, June 16, 2002.

"Getting a Bounce in Spring City." The Salt Lake Tribune, May 19, 2002.

"Lake Presents Personal Side In Exhibit." The Deseret News, March 16, 2003.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, April 25, 2004.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, November 16, 2003.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, October 20, 2002.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, November 5, 2000.

"Showing At Local Galleries." The Deseret News, October 31, 1999.

"Spring City Hosting an Art Sale May 24." The Deseret News, May 8, 2003.

"Utah Marquee: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, January 2, 2004.

"Utah Marquee: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, December 19, 2003.

"Utah Marquee: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, December 5, 2003.

"Utah Marquee: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, November 28, 2003.

"Utah Marquee: Visual Art." The Salt Lake Tribune, November 21, 2003.

"Utahns' Works on Display." The Deseret News, June 1, 2003.

Books

American Federation of Arts, and R.R. Bowker Company. Who's Who in American Art, 1993-94. New York, NY: R.R. Bowker, 1993.

Catalina Art Association. The Plein Air Painters of America Exhibit and Sale. Avalon, CA: Catalina Art Association, 1990.

Davenport, Ray. Davenport's Art Reference and Price Guide. Marceline, MI: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2001.

Dunbier, Lonnie. The Artists Bluebook. Scottsdale, AZ: Ask Art.com., 2003.

Jacques Cattell Press. Who's Who in American Art. New York, NY: Bowker, 1986.

Lake, Randall Bruce. "Paintings". M.F.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1977.

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999.

R.R. Bowker Company. Who's Who in American Art 1997-1998. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who, 1997.

Southwest Art. Master Index of Artists & Articles Published in Southwest Art 1971-1993. Boulder, CO: Southwest Art, l993.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert Olpin, Donna Poulton and Janie L. Rogers. 150 Year Survey Utah Art & Artists. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2002.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Art. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publishing Co, 1991.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Painting and Sculpture. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1997.

Periodicals

15 Bytes. "300 Plates The First Annual Art Access Fundraiser & Exhibition." 15 Bytes, http://www.artistsofutah.org/newsletter/03may/page4.html (accessed October 23, 2008).

Klein, Barbara J. "The Roy Rose Collection." Southwest Art, October 1998.

Scholl, Barry. "Confronting the Creative Process: Utah's Randall Lake Brings a 19th-Century Approach to His 21st-Century Paintings." Southwest Art, April 2003, 32.

Southwest Art. "Start your Collection." Southwest Art, January 2001.

Southwest Art. "The Poetry of Spaces." Southwest Art, June 2002.

Yennant, Donna. "Best of the West." Southwest Art, June 1997.