Art Exhibit: Dennis Sheehan "Of Dusk and Dawn"
When:
Saturday, Apr 12, 2025 10:30a -
Saturday, May 03, 2025 5:30p
Saturday, Apr 12, 2025 10:30a -
Saturday, May 03, 2025 5:30p
Where:
The Guild of Boston ARtists
162 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Art, Date Idea, Rainy Day Ideas, Shopping
The Guild of Boston Artists is proud to present Of Dusk and Dawn, a solo show of poetic landscapes by renowned contemporary Tonalist painter Dennis Sheehan, at its Newbury Street gallery from April 12 – May 3rd.
Suffused with spiritual meaning and deep emotional mood, Sheehan’s twilit scenes explore the evocative dualities inherent in the moment when light meets dark. For nearly all of recorded history, painters and poets have been inspired by the ineffable qualities of twilight and the ephemerality of dusk and dawn. For Dennis Sheehan, these moments in the passage of the day, when light and dark exist as one, are the most important to his artistic goals. He explains, “My goal is to have the painting emanate light, rather than be just a surface that records the reflections of light. This is why the shadow areas are important; for it is from them that this emanation proceeds. The light areas are focal points of this effort, but the power comes from the shadows”.
Like the work of nineteenth-century painter George Inness, whose influence is consciously acknowledged, Sheehan’s paintings combine this search for optical truth with an exploration of the poetic resonance to be found in the profound stillness as day breaks or night falls. Deeply sensitive to atmosphere, Sheehan makes evocative use of color to infuse his landscapes with mood; his dusks are rich with feelings of melancholy and solitude while his dawns vibrate with promise and expectation. For the artist, “the purpose of art is to enhance and enrich one’s life and the lives of others” and each of the tranquil painted meditations in this show are sure to do just that.
About the Artist:
Born in Boston, MA in 1950, Dennis Sheehan is a renowned contemporary Tonalist painter based in Manchester, NH. With over 30 years of painting experience, Dennis's journey began in grammar school and was nurtured by mentors and studies at the Vesper George School of Art and the Montserrat School of Visual Art. His artistic path was solidified by his encounter with Bruce Crane's work, which inspired him to embrace Tonalism. His work is the product of the conscious distillation of prior imagery ranging from the French Barbizon to the abstractions of Franz Kline. For all of the references to history—and there are multiple—there is no mistaking the artist’s debt to the more recent past. Without the legacy of action painting, Sheehan’s art would be less forceful and evocative than it is.
Sheehan’s work has been featured in many publications including the featured cover of American Artist. His paintings are held in hundreds of major public and private collections, including that of the White House and the personal collections of former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
