Glenn Dean

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Glenn Dean’s contemporary art of the American West blends tradition with his own distinctive vision, evoking emotion through simplicity.

California artist, Glenn Dean, preserves the time-honored tradition of American West art while making his mark on the genre. Exploring themes of land and sky, towering mesas, lonely desert expanses, cowboy culture, indigenous heritage, and the spiritual relationship between nature and human beings in its purest form, Dean tells visual stories with a modern personal aesthetic skillfully expressed through shapes, composition, and the brilliant interplay between color and light.

He has garnered many awards for his work, exhibited extensively, and been featured in numerous publications. We had a conversation with Dean about his work and inspiration.

Early on in your career, what drew you to landscapes as your choice of subject matter?

I was initially drawn to landscapes (and still am) because of the spiritual aspect of nature: the big shapes that make a man feel small. It’s a difficult thing to convey the spirit and grandeur of a place with paint, which is an ongoing challenge and pursuit in my artistic journey.

How do you decide on which location to paint?

The best locations to paint are usually ones that have a lot of variety. Places that can be painted morning, noon, and evening on the same day due to the position of its geographical forms in relation to the sun’s position throughout the day. However, when in tune with nature, nearly everything seems paintable and interesting. The American West (coastlines included) has endless painting locations.

The horizon is a major component in many of your paintings. What does it represent to you?

The horizon alludes to the unknown, and I love that aspect when I’m outdoors. It’s the intrigue of the unseen; the distance calling. I can look to the distance as far as my eyes can see but I will always be curious as to what might be just over the next ridge or around the next corner.

Your use of figures is more prominent in your later work. What brought about this shift?

My early work rarely included figures. I used them as a means to indicate scale in a grand landscape setting. I started to paint figures more central to the composition when I realized the figure is the viewer’s connection to the landscape. How would I convey a feeling of being alone in nature without seeing a figure alone in nature?

I also realized I can express my own experiences in nature more thoroughly through the use of figures in the landscape. Be it a hot, dry day in the sun or a cold, windy evening with a storm approaching. It’s not that these effects in nature can’t be done on canvas without figures, I just feel the figure adds a certain level of connection and personal self-expression.

You describe your work as “simplified realism.” Can you explain that concept and are there abstract elements to it?

There are abstract elements to all art and all of reality when you look close enough. Some art aims to not represent reality and we call it abstract. It is just shapes and colors seemingly disorganized, but really it is just not connected to a larger visual context, at least one that the viewer can see.

By contrast, Realist art aims to represent reality by organizing shapes in the right color and placement of other shapes and colors to look like something we recognize as real. It can all be reduced to placement of shapes, colors, and viewing distance that make reality in art.

When viewing a realistic painting up close, our eyes and brains see only the abstraction of globs of color mixtures in seemingly random and disorganized application because we cannot see the larger context of what it is a part of, but when viewed from the right distance, those same abstract globs of paint become trees or rocks or clouds or whatever the subject might be in the picture.

So, I believe there are abstract elements to all art, whether intended or not. To me, simplified realism means a realism that doesn’t go all the way — a realism that hints at rather than overuses too much information and detail. I am more interested in the illusion of detail rather than the detail over-explained. This lack of detail can give the viewer some participation in the painting, allowing them to fill in with their imagination what they know is there but might not fully see.

You’ve mentioned the early California Impressionists as influences on your work. What about their paintings inspire you?

The Early California impressionists still inspire me. They were some of the first paintings I saw early on when I got into landscape painting. I was just blown away (and still am) by their use of shapes, colors, values, and composition to achieve a particular and subtle light effect, from the effect of a washed-out mid-day light to a sense of the last light hitting a tree or mountain peak, all with beautiful color and beautiful paint application.

Being a native Californian may have had something to do with their effect on me as these were paintings of light effects and places that seemed familiar somehow.

Many people speak of finding a sense of spirituality in the desert. Is this true for you and if so, how do you try to convey this in your work?

I think the desert is a very spiritual place. It is the land of endless horizons and vast, lonely spaces with a certain quiet feeling to its spaces and color palette. Conveying spirituality with paint, as I mentioned earlier, is a great challenge. I attempt to achieve this spiritual quality in my work with color choices, compositional choices, and the general lack of “things.” A somewhat “less is more” approach.

The interplay of color and light is a beautiful component of your work. When you see a scene you’d like to paint, what is your process of recording these elements so you can recreate them on canvas?

Thank you! Well, I don’t know what it is at first. Something just seems attractive about a scene and then I try to figure out what it is that I’m attracted to. It’s usually a combination of things, like color, shape of light, shape of shadow, the spaces between, etc.

I take photos and create oil color sketches on location. That combination boosts my memory and contributes greatly when I’m working in the studio so I’m not relying on the photographs alone (which have a lot of falsities in them, especially in regard to light and color and an overall fixed placement of the elements in the scene). The oil studies help achieve authenticity with the color.

Dean is represented by Legacy Gallery, Santa Fe and Scottsdale; Maxwell Alexander Gallery, Pasadena; Medicine Man Gallery, Tucson.

All images © Glenn Dean, shared with permission.