Dale Terbush says, “I paint very fast.” Using fast-drying acrylic paint that he sometimes encourages to dry faster with a hair dryer, he builds up layers of paint to create mystical landscapes that appear to have their own inner light.
On June 28 and 29, visitors to Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will have the opportunity to see the master in action as he creates his compositions from his imagination directly onto the canvas. Cyndi Hall, general manager of Manitou, says, “This transformative weekend allows you a glimpse into the magical realm that Terbush conjures with every stroke of his brush, a realm where the ordinary is made extraordinary through the power of art.”
Just Beyond Twilight, acrylic, 16 x 20 in.
In the 1990s Terbush had moved to Santa Fe to pursue his passion for painting. He had previously designed the interiors of more than 300 restaurants, successfully creating a sense of place for diners. Painting imaginative, luminous landscapes, he rapidly became successful. He then moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, where acceptance of his unique paintings continued to grow.
He acknowledges that he has never taken art lessons, but he has studied the masters of the romantic American landscape in the Hudson River School as well as the intensely colorful landscapes of Maxfield Parrish. Parrish wrote, “Colors have the power to evoke emotions and transport us to different worlds.”
The Master's Signature, acrylic, 12 x 36 in.
Terbush’s imaginative landscapes carry viewers to different worlds while simultaneously creating an increased awareness of the world around them, rich with light and color and the myriad subtleties of both.
In The Master’s Signature,the setting sun casts a warm glow on the landscape and on the low clouds below the infinity of the sky, painted in a vividly contrasting blue that recalls the intense blue skies seen in the paintings of Parrish.
To This World be True, acrylic, 20 x 16 in.
Although his work is likened to that of the Hudson River painters as well as Parrish, Terbush is acutely aware that if he were to copy the work of his predecessors he would lose their soul. Just as they responded to the landscape from the depths of their being, he responds in a way unique to himself. Nevertheless, he evokes a universal appreciation of the wonders of nature.
When Heaven Tells You Secrets, acrylic, 24 x 24 in.
He says, “My imagination takes me to these places.” The unexpected purple of the mountain shadows in his painting When Heaven Tells You Secrets recalls Parrish who wrote, “The hard part is how to plan a picture so as to give to others what has happened to you. To render in paint an experience, to suggest the sense of light and color, of air and space.” The power of Terbush’s experience of nature, as well as his imagination and skill, result in poetic images that reveal more than the physical aspects of the landscape. —
Manitou Galleries 123 W. Palace Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87501, (505) 986-0440, www.legacygallery.com
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