Dennis Ziemienski paints the West—vintage neon signs and vehicles, cowboys and cowgirls, and the vast landscape. The bright colors and strong graphics of his paintings recall classic travel posters and arouse the same urge to visit the West and to get to know its people.
Dennis Ziemienski, Song of the Trail, oil on canvas, 60 x 40"
He has long admired the work of Maynard Dixon and Edward Hopper, both of whom were illustrators as he was before he turned full time to fine art. He brought their influence and his own skills in illustration along with him.
The neon sign for Santa Fe Lodge rises taller than the clouds, almost as if man had conquered nature. The effect is magnified by the painting’s 5-foot height. A ’50s Buick from the time when the world was full of promise is parked next to the lodge. The sign is a little the worse for wear, however, rusted with peeling paint. Ziemienski often paints classic neon signs in daylight. “You see the glass tubes and the way light glints on them,” he says. “You see the facets of what makes up the illusion at night. Painting them during the day kind of opens it up to me.” 
Billy Schenck, There Was Nobody Prayin’, oil on canvas, 40 x 50"
Song of the Trail, another 5-foot canvas, is every young man’s vision of being a cowboy.
Both paintings will be in a Two Man Show of New Paintings with Billy Schenck at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 30 through August 21.
Dennis Ziemienski, Santa Fe Lodge, oil on canvas, 60 x 40"
Billy Schenck, Box Canyon, oil on canvas, 50 x 47"
Billy Schenck drew from comic books as a kid, discovered Andy Warhol when he went to art school and the Spaghetti Westerns of the Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone. He says, “This filmmaker altered the course of how I would make imagery for the rest of my life.” He discovered black-and-white movie stills, which he edited, transferred to canvas and colorized in the Pop style of flat, unblended color reminiscent of silk screens—a medium he has also mastered.
Recently, he has been assembling, photographing and painting “cowboy descansos” recalling roadside memorials to people killed in accidents. There Was Nobody Prayin features paraphernalia from his extensive collection, empty liquor bottles he picked up along the road, a lonely nude and a mariachi player—all set in a favorite haunt, Monument Valley. —
Upcoming Show
Up to 20 works
July 30-Aug. 21, 2021
Blue Rain Gallery
544 S. Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 954-9902, www.blueraingallery.com
Powered by Froala Editor
