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Lockwood “Woody” Dennis (American, 1937-2012). “Portrero” oil on board, 1999. Signed in lower right. A delightful Lockwood Dennis painting depicting Potrero Hill, a residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California that was largely working-class until gentrification in the late 1990s. The golden sky of sunset or sunrise illuminates the brownstone buildings of the city, which rise above a grassy, apricot-hued hill. Colorful cars race along the roads and highway ramp, adding splashes of scarlet, cobalt, and emerald to the gray city streets; Dennis was perhaps best known for his works that depict classic automobiles. All is delineated with Dennis’ unique hybrid style – a dazzling graphic aesthetic he developed as a master woodcut printmaker combined with expressive, painterly brushwork. Size: 13.25″ W x 15″ H (33.7 cm x 38.1 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.
Condition: Signed in lower right. Light mark to lower center, but otherwise in overall excellent condition. Accompanied by protective plastic film covering and supportive matte board.
Provenance: Lockwood Dennis Art Estate, Boulder, Colorado, USA
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