Dennis King

“Attention,

I feel that any “personal statement” accompanying artwork misses the point of creating and showing art.  I believe that artwork should be experienced, not explained to the viewer.  Viewing artwork or hearing music or attending the theater is an emotional experience in which the viewer should be absorbed into the work; not a thesis that explains art and defines a way to respond to the creative effort.

However in my effort to have the opportunity to begin a dialogue with you and show you my work I have written the following personal statement.

I have been an active practitioner and student of the art of painting since I was 18 years old.  I’m now 60 years old.  I have always been seriously interested in the craft of painting.  I have always been involved in finding out the proper (archival) way to complete a project no matter how many coats of paint, restretching canvases or using the right primers to insure that the craft comes first.

My personality is such that I can’t be happy doing one style or genre of painting repeatedly.  I find it much more exciting to work in many languages concurrently.  I have worked with the figure for years both in a realistic manner as well as an abstracted movement oriented style.

Studying trees, both shape and texture, color and mass, has been an interest of mine since my earliest paintings.  A natural outflow of the painting has been sky painting.  I have spent many years studying clouds and lighting effects for painting on murals, canvas and watercolors.

Perspective has also been a large part of my studies for many years.  Since it is important in showing studies for mural projects in a small scale format, I’ve found it necessary to completely understand the perspective in painting single buildings, groups of buildings with cars and entire city blocks with numerous vanishing points.  This is helpful in selling a job as well as having great stabilizing effects in mural and ceiling paintings.

One of the areas of painting I have never gotten tired of is painting portraits.  Although portraits rarely sell, I think the practice of portrait painting has been a key element in my ability to grow as an artist even while working for five or six years on a large multi panel mural with a great number of figures.

My over arching drive and spirit has been to grow, try and develop skills in new areas, and not to rely on previous solutions.  For this reason I don’t have a “style”.  I have a large body of work in which I’m trying to probe outward and decidedly have not gone in a linear straight line style.

I know that my expansive way of developing my skills or artistry isn’t always well received in the gallery world, and for that reason I have had only limited exposure to my art work.  I’m hoping that your viewing the 20 or so jpeg images will be enough to accept my invitation to visit my studio at your convenience.

Thank you for reviewing my work and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Dennis King”

Dennis King has exhibited extensively in Northern California, including at Open Studios at Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard, Opts Art Go Figure Group, 23rd Street Gallery Group Show, Opts Art In and Out Group Show, Capezio Theater Shop, the San Francisco Public Library Friends of Calligraphy Exhibition, the San Francisco Art Festival and St. Paul’s Church in San Francisco;  Ishikata Enterprises in Belmont, CA;  Syntex Gallery in Palo Alto, CA;  and Dance of Life Shop in Berkeley, CA.

There are 25 people throughout the United States who collect Dennis King’s works including Patricia Hearst Shaw from Wilton, Connecticut;  Grete Engebretsen from San Francisco;  Barbara Hearst from Watermill, New York;  and Bill Woodward from Denver, Colorado.

Contact Dennis at dennispking@sbcglobal.net or 530.926.6353.