Dennon Walantus

Growing up in West Chazy, NY, I spent many hours exploring the outdoors as a child. This adventurous and curious mindset led me to study at Clinton Community College, where I was expecting to major in environmental science. After taking my first class in oil painting in 2014, I knew I had to pursue a life of art. Painting with oils felt so natural and so rewarding, I changed my major to art and decided to go to SUNY Plattsburgh to study with the BFA Program. In this study, I found myself constantly running out of subjects to paint, which led me to look at the surrounding landscape with a cigar box easel. 

The northern Adirondack mountains of New York then became the focus of my work and continue to be my subject today. 

My main focus when painting is to capture an immediate response to the landscape. To use paint to suggest the changing light, seasons, and moods of the weather and atmosphere provided to me. Most of my plein air works are intimate small works, quick oil sketches that provide glimpses of form, color, and energy that I typically bring back to the studio to use as reference for larger works. 

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Dennon lives and works in his home/studio in Schuyler Falls, NY and takes annual trips to the coast of Maine.