**Originally Listed At $900**

Ann Dettmer (American, contemporary), signed painting entitled "Those Red Stools" ca. 2003. A striking oil on board painting by contemporary Colorado artist Ann Dettmer signed on the lower left. Dettmer, who lives in southwest Colorado, creates compositions that draw the viewer into another world, one that is somehow familiar yet mysterious. In this painting, she presents a Hopperesque interior of a restaurant with three empty red stools at the bar. The scene connotes a sense of loneliness - no one sits on those stools, and the only figures depicted are a waitress and three staff behind the counter who do not engage with the viewer. Like Hopper, Dettmer seems to render things as they truly are without sugarcoating. Her works are snapshots in time, real time views of the American experience. Custom frame. Size: 29.5" W x 10" H (74.9 cm x 25.4 cm), 35.5" W x 16" H (90.2 cm x 40.6 cm) framed

Dettmer's style captures the magic of abstraction; though remaining figurative, her paintings are as much about the act and process of painting as they are about any narrative. She poetically has stated, "I want my paintings a little on the edge and messy, like life, and I leave space for mystery. Then the magic can happen." Providing further insight to her oeuvre, Dettmer states, "I am looking for passion and spirit painted with 'skillful honesty', for tension, for expression so real it almost falls off the edge, reality more than realism. Life is messy. It has depth and layers, balance, intrigue, light and dark, confusion and clarity. I don’t see much difference between life and painting. I want whatever I’ve brought to the canvas to flow through the strokes, the sensuous, luscious oil. Each painting takes on it’s own life early in the process so all I have to do is pay attention. The work represents my life - each piece is a moment in my time here on this earth. Through some memory, feeling, experience, the passion wells up and spills into my palette; it mixes with my paint. And the paint tells me what to do. I listen. I act on it. " (biographical statement the Mary Martin Gallery of Fine Art - http://www.marymartinart.com/anndettmer.html)

Provenance: private Colorado USA collection

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#123821

Choice. Signed on lower left and verso. Stamped on back of frame with the date 2003.