Lockwood Dennis (American, 1937-2012), "Visitacion Valley, Geneva" oil on canvas, 2001. Signed on lower right. A beautiful painting of Visitacion Valley in San Francisco by Lockwood Dennis. A row of colorful houses line the foreground, just before the rolling green hills of the midground, with imposing electrical towers and shadowy, multi-story buildings features to the right of the composition. The mention of Geneva in the title may indicate that these homes are built on the previous site of the Geneva Towers - twin 20-story high-rises originally built as private housing in the 1960s that were converted to public housing in the 1970s and fell into dilapidation and poor maintenance in the 1980s, eventually plagued by gangs and drug activity. The city ordered the demolition of the Towers in 1998 and they were imploded in May of that year. This bleak history boldly contrasts the picturesque cityscape depicted in the painting; a vista of quaint homes and nature beneath the peaceful apricot-hued sky of a sunset or sunrise. Size: 14" W x 11" H (35.6 cm x 27.9 cm)

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."

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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#184121

Signed on lower right and also with date and inventory number on lower right of verso. Some light marks on verso of canvas; none of which affect image. In overall excellent condition.