Altus Fine Art grew out of a close personal friendship between Tim Leavitt, the founder of Altus Fine Art, and Simon Dewey, a well-known Christian artist.
Simon attended art school in London and created several paintings from his favorite stories in the Bible to hang in his own home. Visitors to his home would often ask him if there were copies available of these paintings.
In 1997 after many of these requests Simon had a print made of an image of the resurrected Christ coming out of the tomb titled, “He Lives”. These prints were available in the UK and also starting making their way over to the United States.
Tim and Simon had continued to keep in touch over the years and in a phone conversation they started talking about the interest and success of “He Lives”, and Tim wondered if there might be more interest in Simon’s work.
Tim started showing a number of Simon’s images to local galleries, bookstores, and to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' magazine department. The response was overwhelming: people loved Simon’s work and wanted more. Tim felt like this might be a fun hobby helping his friend get these inspiring images out into the world where they could inspire and bless people’s lives.
In the Fall of 1999, Tim founded Altus Fine Art with the idea that if he could help his friend share his talents with the world, perhaps there would be other artists that Tim could help as well.
The Latin word Altus is similar to its Greek counterpart “Altius” found in the Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger). Altus essentially means to bring to new heights, to inspire, to ennoble. Tim felt like Altus was a good match for the mission of sharing religious artwork with the world.
The first years at Altus were spent primarily selling Simon Dewey’s artwork, but soon Altus started publishing and representing other artists as well. Today Altus publishes over 50 artists and helps several hundred others self publish and share their art with the world.
Where many local galleries were focused on only creating expensive and exclusive artwork for collectors, Altus wanted to create products that were made with quality materials and great design but were also affordable for the average family or individual looking for a piece of art for their home.
As we continue to create new products and product lines, our prices range from small affordable prints for less than a dollar, up to large and breathtaking masterpieces that sell for thousands of dollars, and everything in between.
Over the last 20 years we have seen many changes to the Latter-day Saint & Christian industries as well as the evolution of digital printing, online sales, and made to order inventory technologies.
Today we are proud to be able to offer countless images in nearly endless image sizes, formats, framing options and styles. And to think it all began with two childhood friends!
While still a small company with a very tight-knit office and production staff, we now have between 20 and 30 employees who are passionate and incredibly skilled in helping these artists turn their talents into beautiful and affordable products.
Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns. Thank you for shopping at Altus Fine Art!