Lot 244
Lockwood "Woody" Dennis (American, 1937-2012). "House 23" oil on canvas, 2009. Signed, dated, and numbered on verso. A solitary house, rendered with a quiet gravity, emerges from a grove of somber trees in this 2009 oil painting by Lockwood 'Woody' Dennis. With its steep green roof and blocky white facade, the structure appears still and self-contained, almost monastic in its simplicity. Like much of Dennis's late work, "House 23" captures a fleeting moment of presence with painterly restraint and subtle tension. Here, Dennis draws on the principles that shaped his career across five decades: a deep reverence for the built landscape, a graphic sensibility inherited from his early woodblock printmaking, and a love of mood-laden atmospheres. The roof's mottled tones of moss and rust suggest weathering and memory, while the angular shadows between trees lend a whisper of mystery. This is not a house so much as an idea of one - a stand-in for the past, for shelter, or for the feeling of returning to something once known. Size: 10" W x 8" H (25.4 cm x 20.3 cm)
Dennis spoke often of "just being here, experiencing the world" - a philosophy that underpins the composition's quiet power. There are no human figures, no narrative cues, only stillness and geometry, shadow and contrast. Yet the emotional pull is unmistakable. As with many of Dennis's works, "House 23" is a celebration of ordinariness elevated, a memory suspended in oil and light. His paintings reside in major public and private collections, including the Seattle Art Commission, Tacoma Art Museum, Museum of Northwest Art, and the U.S. Library of Congress.
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
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#194179
- Condition: Painting is in excellent overall condition. Signed, dated, and numbered on verso.
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