In John Carter's landscape, a pair of lakes rest placidly beneath the majestic Uintas. The scene is a languid haze of mid-summer mid-tones: blue of the lakes reflecting and deepening the blue of the sky, neutral-toned mountains, and an expanse of summer grasses at the peak of the season. The evergreens are a cool darkness reflected in the lake, their dark tones subtly repeated in the crags of shadow in the mountainside. The composition has a gentle symmetry, with the shape of the mountain echoing the shape of the nearer of the two lakes, the sky and grassy foreground tracing a similar shape as well. The scene as a whole feels pure and untouched. It could depict a mountain landscape from1950, when the county acquired the painting, or from long before Carter was born or pioneers settled Summit County.
John Carter was born in Nephi, Utah, August 26, 1884. He attended elementary and high school in Nephi, and then went on to study at Brigham Young University. From the time he was small, he was interested in drawing. Carter's father was a farmer, so growing up, John's life was full of farm work and chores, but every spare moment he would be out with his drawing materials, rendering on paper the scenes of his surroundings. At B.Y.U, he enrolled in the art department, studying under E.H. Eastmond and Orson D. Campbell from 1909 to 1913. While still in college, Carter sold several of his paintings. He also created illustrations for the school paper and won two contests for cover designs for the Christmas issue of Blue and White, the school paper. He settled permanently in Coalville in 1935.
