Jeff Hein: Mormon Artist
Jeffrey Hein is an artist who focuses on portraits and religious paintings. He was born in 1974 in New Windsor, New York. Although he was interested in art, he had no training until he took his first art class at Brigham Young University-Idaho (then Ricks College) his freshman year. He was called on a full-time mission to the Salt Lake City, Utah, mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], but twenty-one months into his mission, he was diagnosed with cancer and was required to return home to New York for treatment, which consisted of nine surgeries and six months of chemotherapy over the next year.
While he was convalescing, he and Jennifer Davis—a fellow New Yorker who had also served a mission to Salt Lake City—dated and soon married. They moved to Salt Lake City where Hein continued his studies at the University of Utah. He paid their rent for a basement apartment by working odd jobs and repairs for their landlord. He developed enough skill that he started building furniture and performing other repairs for other people. He left the university in 2002. In 2007, he founded the Hein Academy of Art and continues to paint, draw, sculpt, and teach in his studio. He is an invited artist since 2012 at the Portrait Society of America Annual Portrait Convention. From 2008 to 2010 he embarked on a personal study of master works and processes. He and his wife are the parents of three children.
Hein’s work is found in many private collections. His work has been shown at the Springville Art Museum, the Museum of Church History and Art and the Ensign magazine. He has received many awards for his work, including second place in the 2014 Figurative Category at the Art Renewal Center Annual Salon and second place in the Portrait Society of America annual International Portrait Competition (2014).
