Views of Darkened Landscapes: Art by Dennis Ekstedt
Painter Dennis Ekstedt creates dreamy atmospheric paintings of city lights at night. In their many permutations, Dennis’ paintings produce aerial views of darkened landscapes both recognizable and alien.
PYROTECHNIC STAR #3, oil on canvas
I really appreciate the works in Dennis’ gallery of works from 20178. These recent works seem to explore a new visual path, occasionally veering into landscapes more cosmic than terrestrial. I also really enjoy those paintings that incorporate more deliberate, dark forms, like in PYROTECHNIC STAR #3, where a trio of solid black monoliths invades the painted plane – these figures remind me of works by Lili Phelouzat, where the artist takes a textured, painterly background and intervenes with hard-edged geometric shapes.
The front page of Dennis' portfolio website
As always, I enjoy Dennis’ use of color in his paintings – rather than depicting his cities as fields of light floating in uniform blackness, the paintings are often grounded in surprisingly saturated hues, like deep reds and vibrant blues. Even the lights themselves are individual marks of yellow, orange, and even red, lending a sense of dynamism to the whole work.
