Adair Payne: Mormon Artist
Adair Payne is a landscape artist. He grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. At a young age he began painting and quickly started being commissioned by local collectors and landowners. He went on to earn a bachelor’s of fine art in graphic design from Brigham Young University. After his graduation in 1984, he moved to the East Coast to take a position with a design firm. After six years, he returned to the West and continued his design work in Los Angeles and Phoenix. He moved into a career in commercial illustration and specialized in story maps for corporate clients—including Chrysler, Delta Airlines, and Lucent Technologies—as well as the tourism industry.
Payne taught himself how to work with watercolors, acrylics, and oils, and is currently painting landscapes. He painted “Below the Mighty Peaks,” which is part of the artwork appearing in the Payson Utah Temple. Two of his paintings, "Oakland Hills" and "Elders of the Forest," hang in the Oakland California Temple. Other temples he has submitted paintings for include the Barranquilla Colombia Temple, the Fortaleza Brazil Temple, the Rio de Janeiro Temple, the Tucson Arizona Temple, and the Hartfort Connecticut Temple.
Payne is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and lives in Utah County.
