ANDREW DENMAN: THE MODERN WILD
Produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C.
David J. Wagner, Ph.D., Curator/Tour Director
COAST-TO-COAST TOUR
September 19 - October 18, 2015: Lindsay Wildlife
Museum, Walnut Creek (San Francisco Bay Area), CA
October 31, 2015 - January 3, 2016: Arizona-Sonora Desert
Museum, Tucson, AZ
February 1 - April 30, 2016: Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, NJ
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“Tapestry” Palm
Tanager, 21.25 x 31.5” Acrylic on Board, 2009
The
result of Denman’s first international travel, in this case a trip to Trinidad
in the West Indies, “Tapestry” represents a significant shift in style. Here the stylistic and abstracted elements
are melded seamlessly with hyper-realistic treatments in the artists’ portrayal
of both habitat and wildlife.
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A n d r e w D e n m a n
“In the increasingly crowded field of wildlife artists,
Andrew Denman [b. 1978], stands out for his distinctive
look in addition to his masterful painting skill”
writes veteran art writer and magazine editor Jennifer King in an editorial for
Create Better Paintings.com.
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“Indigo” Indian
Blue Peacocks, 24 x 48” Acrylic on Board, 2004
Not
only was “Indigo” Denman’s first painting accepted into a major museum
exhibition, in this case, “Birds in Art” at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art
Museum, but it was also the first time his use of abstraction, previously
limited to background applications, spilled over into his treatment of the
animal subjects.
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Denman is an artist known for capturing diverse subjects,
from wildlife, to landscape, to still life, in an equally diverse range of
styles. His recent work focuses on
intimate wildlife portraits and scenes approached with a unique combination of
hyper-realism, stylization, and abstraction.
While Denman does not eschew the term “wildlife artist”, his work has
moved well beyond the genre, often incorporating modern art elements as well as
subject matter that most traditional wildlife artists avoid.
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“Jigsaw” White
Gyrfalcon, 28 x 20” Acrylic on Cradled Birch, 2011
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Denman holds a BA in Fine Arts from Saint Mary’s College in
Moraga, CA. He is well known in the San
Francisco Bay Area as both an artist and teacher, and he has gained national
attention through major gallery showings, numerous museum exhibitions, artist
workshops and speaking engagements, and feature coverage in such publications
as Southwest Art, American Artist, Wildlife Art, and The
Artist’s Magazine, among others.
Born in 1978, the Bay Area native showed a great degree of
interest in art from an early age.
Denman organized his first one man show in high school at a local
library, and soon after began participating in exhibitions with Pacific
Wildlife Galleries in Lafayette, CA.
Since then, Denman has held four highly successful one-man shows at
Pacific Wildlife. Locally, he has also participated in exhibits at the Bedford
and Hearst Galleries, The Lindsay Wildlife Museum, the Oakland Museum of
California, and the Bakersfield Museum of Fine Art.
His work has toured nationally with Birds in Art and the Society of Animal Artists, which has thrice
honored Andrew’s work with Awards of Excellence. The artist has participated for four years
running in the highly competitive Western Visions Miniatures and More
Exhibition and Sale at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming,
an institution that named him the Lanford Monroe Memorial Artist in Residence
for Winter of 2009. Denman’s work can be
found in the National Museum of Wildlife Art, The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art
Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, and numerous private collections across the
country. The artist is a member of the
Society of Animal Artists, NY, The International Guild of Realism, AZ, and
Artists for Conservation, Canada. Denman
is currently represented by Trailside Galleries in Jackson Hole, WY, and
maintains Denman Studios at his Orinda home.
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“Modern Dance” Acrylic on Board, 35 x 24” 2004
Typical of his mature style,
Denman uses the flamingos, as they shift musically between styles and stages of
completion, as a vehicle for exploring the paint itself and the process of
painting.
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Whether painting an animal in its natural habitat or juxtaposing it against an abstract background,
Denman goes to great lengths to
faithfully portray his subjects, taking frequent field trips to nature areas,
parks, and zoos to observe his subjects and acquire reference material. Yet while accuracy is always of great
importance, Denman is an artist before he is a naturalist. The sense of fearless experimentation and
originality he brings to his paintings testifies to the artist’s true focus. As Mary Nelson wrote in the Wildlife Art magazine, “In the end, it’s
not the mood, the meaning, or the method that Denman craves. It is the medium-art.”
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"Keep Searching Winki" Squirrel Monkey Acrylic on Board, 10 x 6.75"
2009
“This little fellow
captured my heart one day on a trip to the San Francisco Zoo. Anyone who has
ever named a pet is guilty of anthropomorphization and in some wildlife
paintings, such sentiment creeps subconsciously into the artist’s portrayal of
the anatomy. My goal is to not let my feelings of identification with an animal
subject distort the accuracy of my representation, but I’m not at all above
allowing emotion to shine through in the pose or expression I select or the
title of the piece.
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ANDREW DENMAN: THE MODERN
WILD shall consist of thirty-five (35) artworks, plus preparatory
drawings/sketches, photographs, poems, panels and labels. For further information, visit: http://andrewdenman.com/Modern_Wild.html
Mine
by
Andrew Denman
I drink
jubilations of ignorant green;
I
lap the clear quiet of blue;
I’m
absorbed by the wisdom of yellow
And
the violet mystery, too.
Mine
is the hot, earthy passion of red
And
orange with its zeal and its rage;
Mine
is the vibrance and glory of black
And
the pure, peerless white of the page.
It
is my red lace eyelids that purple the sun;
In
my brain burns the brilliance of sight;
Mine
to breathe are the white buds of jasmine,
Unfurling
like stars in the night.
I
claim azure oceans that tug at my feet;
Mine
as well are the sweet singing reeds;
Mine
is the moss and the dust and the dross
And
the root and the stem and the seed.
Mine
