b. 1976
Landscape
Basically a self-taught artist, Glenn Dean has a passion and joy for discovering answers to the complexities found in the works of the past masters, in particular, the works of Maynard Dixon and Edgar Payne. "These artists painted things the way they were meant to be painted-- with a solid sense of form and broad stokes of clean, defining color." Glenn strives for quality in his work and uses the past masters as a standard to check his own work against. "The early painters incorporated good use of the principles of art to create high quality, aesthetic works that remain unrivaled even today---and they made it look easy." Glenn believes that their paintings also revealed a spiritual element to the landscape, which he feels should be the goal of the landscape painter. "The landscape is the tangible connection between man and God. It is a very humbling task---trying to paint the unseen qualities of a landscape as well as what is seen."
Glenn recognized his interest for art at the age of 13, however, he didn't realize his love for painting the landscape until his early 20's. His path became clear when he first saw examples of work by the Early California and Western landscape painters of the early 1900's. "Their work emphasized the importance of seeing the color of light combined with interesting compositions and seemingly effortless designs, while carefully observing the simple and basic characteristics of a specific location. It still feels like I'm at a magic show when I see work by those artists."
At the age of 31, Glen has appeared in several national magazines including Southwest Art, Art of the West, and American Artist. He has also won a number of awards, including the first ever "Emerging Artist Award" presented by Art and Antiques magazine. In addition, he is the recipient of the Grand Prize and Artists Choice awards at the inaugural Tucson/Sonoran Desert Museum Invitational.
Glenn is a plein-aire painter, dividing his time between Southwestern deserts, mountains, and coastal subjects. "To me, the West is home. There are so many places to paint, it would take a thousand lifetimes to paint them all." Glenn feels that his time in the field and in the studio are equally important. In his studio, Glenn develops larger compositions worked from field studies and other references. In 2006, Glenn relocated from his native state of California to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Select Awards
2007- Kelman -Ortiz award. Torrey Pines painting invitational
2003 Grand Prize and Artist Choice award. Arizona- Sonora desert Museum painting invitational
2002 Honorable Mention San Luis Obispo painting festival
Best Miniature painting award. San Juan Capistrano painting festival
Inaugural Emerging artist award, Art and antiques magazine Carmel art Festival 2001
2001 Honorable Mention award. San Juan Capistrano painting festival
Select Publications
Art of the West magazine, article Jan-Feb 2008
Western Art Collector Magazine, feature article November 07
Southwest Art magazine, feature article, November 2004
American Artist Magazine , feature article, June 2003
Southwest Art magazine, "News Makers" May 2003
Southwest Art magazine, inaugural "21 under 31" 2000
