Lockwood "Woody" Dennis (American, 1937-2012). "Ruffner St, Magnolia" oil on canvas, 2008. Signed with date and inventory number on verso. A fabulous painting by Lockwood Dennis depicting Ruffner Street in the affluent Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, located on a hilly peninsula jutting into Puget Sound. The winding road twists and turns around idyllic white houses, verdant shrubberies, lush pines, and leafy deciduous trees with lemon yellow and scarlet red cars adding splashes of color to the otherwise neutral composition. West Ruffner street runs with interruptions from Queen Anne hill to just short of Elliott Bay. This piece was perhaps conceptualized as the artist wandered through the rolling hills of this picturesque Seattle neighborhood. 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: 16" W x 20" H (40.6 cm x 50.8 cm)

Lockwood "Woody" Dennis was driven to paint throughout his 45 year career and each canvas reveals new aspects about him as a person - his approaches to life, the environment, and art. During the early years, Woody was most influenced by the works of Post-Impressionist pioneers of early Modernism such as Cezanne and Matisse. As he evolved, Woody developed a graphic style that was 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 continued, "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

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.

We ship worldwide to most countries and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.

#185646

Signed with date and inventory number on verso. Some fraying to edges of canvas on verso that does not affect composition, but otherwise in excellent overall condition.