Joseph Alma Freestone Everett was born in Salt Lake City. He studied art with James Harwood, John Hafen, and Lee Greene Richards at home before pursuing training in Paris and New York City. Although an accomplished printmaker and muralist, Everett preferred the portable medium of watercolor. While working as an engineer-draftsman for the Oregon Short Line Railroad, he sought any opportunity to quickly capture the natural landscape. Eventually, Everett opened an art school at the Lion House where, among other things, he gave private lessons to the children of Heber J. Grant.
Everett preferred to capture everyday scenes and the undramatic landscapes of the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding canyons. The familiarity of this winter landscape provides a dream-like remembrance of a place we might have visited once.
