Lockwood "Woody" Dennis (American, 1937-2012). Oil on canvas, 1995. Signed on lower left. A wonderful painting by Lockwood Dennis that features a montage of cityscapes - scenes from Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco. In addition, Dennis included a striking juxtaposition of an industrial site and clouds floating in the clear blue sky - a marvelous contrast between man-made and natural environments. Dennis is perhaps best known for his works that depict classic automobiles and other people movers. Here he includes a locomotive, an elevated light rail train, a truck, and a sedan. Finally, the lone human figure walking below an urban colonnade at the bottom of the composition is a portrayal of the artist himself. Dennis loved to experience the world around him and was oftentimes inspired by taking long walks. In his words, "The impetus to paint is always an experience - a specific place, weather, ordinary things remembered. A celebration of just being here, experiencing the world." Size: 40.25" L x 34" W (102.2 cm x 86.4 cm)

Lockwood "Woody" Dennis was driven to paint throughout his 45 year career. Painting was the most personal and rewarding artistic endeavor for Dennis. Each canvas reveals new aspects about him as a person - his approaches to life, the environment, and art. During the early years, Dennis was most influenced by the works of Post-Impressionist pioneers of early Modernism such as Cezanne and Matisse. In time, Dennis developed a graphic style informed by the style and imagery he created for his woodblock prints.

Lockwood Dennis was quite eloquent and insightful when asked about his art. The following is an excerpt from the "On Impetus" section of his "Philosophical Musings on Painting": "The impetus to paint is always an experience - a specific place, weather, ordinary things remembered. A celebration of just being here, experiencing the world. The experience itself is somehow lost in the process, and, anyway, its not intended that it should be conveyed. The result is a picture animated by that experience. Dennis continues, "A painting starts with an exuberance. It's good to be alive. The work is a wonderful place. The feeling seems to cover everything, but it relates especially to past experiences, beginning further back than I can remember. It becomes specific in associations with past experiences: Portland, Eastern Washington, Africa; but not with an exact description. The memory of a precise place and time - a moment of past reality is too terrible to bear, there is such a sense of loss, of things gone forever. So it is a present experience, based on the past. And perhaps the cartoon character adds the levity to remove it from the past, or 'animate' it in the present."

Lockwood Dennis' paintings have been collected by the following museums and organizations: Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington; Seattle Art Commission, Seattle, Washington; Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington; Swedish Medical Center Foundation, Seattle, Washington; Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, Washington; Jefferson Museum of Art and History, Port Townsend, Washington; Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington; Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, Washington; Clallam County Historical Society, Port Angeles, Washington; Bainbridge Island Art Museum, Winslow, Washington; US Library of Congress, Washington, DC; US State Department, Washington, DC.

Provenance: Lockwood Dennis Art Estate, Boulder, Colorado, USA

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#175858

Painting is signed on the lower left and overall excellent save minor stains on the verso that do not impact the painted imagery. Signature, inventory number, and date are handwritten on verso.