Dennon Walantus

About the Instructor

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

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

Dennon’s 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. Most of his plein air works are intimate small works, quick oil sketches that provide glimpses of form, color, and energy that he typically brings back to the studio to use as reference for larger works.

For more info, visit Dennon’s website www.paintingden.com.