Honoring a late-blooming artist whose luminous landscapes reflect a lifetime of design and discovery, the exhibition “Butterfly Effect: The Watercolors of Andrew McBain Sinclair” will be on display at the Utah Tech University Sears Art Museum this summer.
The exhibition opens with a public reception from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on June 13 in the museum with light refreshments and remarks by museum staff. “Butterfly Effect” will remain on display through Aug. 22. Located in the Eccles Fine Arts Center on the Utah Tech campus, the Sears Art Museum is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
“Sinclair’s watercolors are both rigorous and expressive,” James Peck, director and curator of the Sears Art Museum, said. “This show is not only a tribute to Sinclair’s extraordinary landscapes, but also to his legacy of giving and his deep commitment to art as a way of seeing and preserving the world around us.”
The exhibition showcases works from across Sinclair’s artistic career, including sketchbooks, photographs and process drawings that illuminate his meticulous methods. These watercolors were part of a 2024 gift from the Sinclair estate to the Sears Art Museum, with the hope that the donation would inspire future generations of artists and museum professionals.
Born in Virginia and trained as an architect at University of California, Berkeley, Sinclair (1943–2017) spent more than 30 years designing parks, housing and civic projects across the United States. A near-fatal illness in 2004 prompted a turn toward artmaking, leading Sinclair to spend his final years painting the American West with architectural precision and a bold sense of color.
