Lockwood "Woody" Dennis (American, 1937-2012). "Paintings 4, Portland Riverfront" oil on canvas, 1995. Signed on lower left. Signature, title, date, and inventory number on the verso. A wonderful Lockwood Dennis painting that pays homage to Portland, Oregon's largest city as well as the town were Dennis was born and raised. The composition features a montage of Portland scenes - glimpses of its industrial buildings, several of its many bridges, as well as a marvelous downtown cityscape at the lower right. Dennis is perhaps best known for his works that feature automobiles and people movers, and in this painting he gives center stage to an elevated train. All is delineated in a rich color palette replete with shades of azure blue, forest green, golden yellow, petal pink, and violet grounded by earth tones and neutrals - and a dazzling graphic aesthetic that Dennis developed as a master woodcut printmaker combined with his expressive, painterly brushwork. A fabulous painting of Portland's riverfront in which Dennis honors his hometown. Size: 24" L x 36" W (61 cm x 91.4 cm)

About the artist: 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.

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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#184127

Overall excellent. Signed on lower left. "Portland Riverfront '95 / 282 Jul '95 / L. Dennis" handwritten on verso.