Leonard Wren Spring Light in Burgundy French Impressionst Landscape Oil on Board

Description

Late 20th century landscape oil painting on board titled "Spring Light in Burgundy (France)" by Leonard Wren. Depicts a charming … more Late 20th century landscape oil painting on board titled "Spring Light in Burgundy (France)" by Leonard Wren. Depicts a charming French Impressionist country landscape of a village viewed across a Vineyard / field. Signed in lower right corner. Beveled frame with molded foliate edge and gold finish.

Wren refers to himself as an "American Impressionist" and shrugs off those who criticize the style as trite. "There's a lot of bad impressionism out there, paintings that are too sweet, like greeting-card art. I believe a painting should be beautiful. Not necessarily pretty, but beautiful." He considers the style's accessibility and popularity a plus. "Impressionism is like the blues," Wren says. "It's so basic that it touches you profoundly." Born in 1940, he grew up near Coffeyville, KS, in what he calls a narrow world, populated with less than 200 people. "I was 18 years old before I knew there were such things as artists." Wren left a difficult home life at 18 and lived on his own, working at a greenhouse, where he slept on the floor. He also worked as a car pin-striper. "I was a free spirit, working in places like drive-ins. People came from miles around to have me pin stripe their cars," he says. Wren married his wife Roberta in 1962 and they moved to Tulsa in 1964, where he started a commercial design business. He eventually closed the shop in 1976 to paint full time-"too many deadlines and too many compromises." A chance visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1975 introduced him to impressionism. "From the very first time I saw Claude Monet's paintings I was overwhelmed and I began to see art in a totally new way." Upon his return home, Wren set out to find a teacher to help him develop skills in painting with light and color. "Honest ignorance," he says, gave him the confidence to embark on a painting career at the age of 36. "Learning about art was more complex than I had ever imagined. The more I learned the more I realized I still had to learn.

Dimensions:
26" x 3" x 22" / Sans Frame - 15.5" x 11.75" (Width x Depth x Height) less