NME Afterprint: Exhibition: Watercolorist Dan Stouffer
Weems Gallery and Framing is hosting a solo exhibition in September celebrating award-winning watercolorist Dan Stouffer for his 50 years as an artist and 40 years at Weems.
The celebration and exhibit opens Sept. 6 and runs through Sept. 23. A meet-the-artist reception will be held Friday, Sept. 13, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Weems, 5935 Wyoming Blvd. NE with a portion of proceeds donated to Animal Humane New Mexico, an organization Stouffer and his wife, Jean, have long supported. Stouffer is donating one of his pieces – “Jean’s Place Revisited” as a silent auction item. The watercolor – of a stream running through a stand of Aspens – is a favorite spot of theirs. It’s valued at $2,700, and the full auction price will also be donated to Animal Humane.
Stouffer is known for his detailed watercolors of the mountains and outdoors of New Mexico and the Southwest. Among his favorite subjects are golden aspens, and snow-covered mountain peaks, along with the natural landmarks in national parks, like the Grand Tetons, White Sands, Mesa Verde, and the Grand Canyon.
Most noteworthy is that Stouffer paints with a limited palette – only seven basic colors – because he is color blind. In college, when he switched from engineering to fine arts, his professors were skeptical at first but came to recognize that his color blindness was more of an advantage than a hindrance.
“They concluded that I had an advantage in basic composition because of my strong sense of tonal values,” he says.
In addition, all of Stouffer’s works contain what he calls “graffiti”. He hides his wife’s name in every painting as a “mini bouquet” to Jean for encouraging him to paint for a living. “Without her support and encouragement, I could never have made it as an artist,” he says. Her name has now appeared in more than 7,000 paintings. Stouffer also adds paw prints in every painting as a tribute to dogs they have lost over the years. “As each one left us, I added another paw print to the paintings. There are now six,” he notes.
Over his career as an artist, Stouffer has built an impressive list of credentials. His work has been shown in several museums and is in corporate collections throughout the country. He has won more than 60 national and regional awards, some in such prominent competitions as Watercolor USA, Arts for the Parks, and Rocky Mountain National Watercolor Society. Philanthropy has always been important to him, and he has donated more than 400 paintings to local nonprofits and various fundraisers during his 50 years as an artist.
To learn more visit https://weemsgallery.com/
A beautiful collection!