GUEST BLOG by Corrine Brown

Corinne Brown is a Colorado based freelance writer and Western novelist who loves contemporary art. She’s a senior writer at Working Ranch Magazine, Western & English Today,  and on staff at Persimmon Hill, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum publication. For more about Corinne visit her website HERE.

Flowers burst into bloom, trees shimmer and skies flow like rivers of color in the brilliant world of Colorado artist, Terry Dunlap. Wherever her eye and brush may fall, she ignites the physical world with her own mystical, emotion-charged view, a dazzling palette of fuchsia, violet, turquoise, copper and green.

As comfortable depicting the bold pueblos of New Mexico, or the richly-hued hills of the Rockies’ front range, Dunlap is one artist who isn’t afraid to let her brush speak for her. Large or small, her joyful canvases ring with a message of celebration and renewal.

“My paintings and these vibrant colors are symbols of my inner freedom. A place and time in my life that’s the best it’s ever been. I’m not inhibited or guided at all by trends or popular taste. The colors to me are symbolic. In short, they represent life.”

Dunlap should know of what she speaks, after having recently come back full strength from a long, debilitating illness, only to face unexpected heart surgery in August of 2008. A successful survivor, she had barely returned home at the time of this interview, and was anxious to resume her work.

“The hardest part of recuperating,” said Dunlap, “is not being able to paint. It’s frustrating. I have months to go before I’m allowed to attack my canvases again. The images just well up inside me and need to be expressed.”

Much like the artist Jackson Pollock, Terry’s approach to painting is whole body. Her paints are premixed ahead of time in Tupperware containers and stored in squeeze bottles. The initial attack is literally direct, paint squeezed full force, later to be overlaid with select touches. “I don’t use a hand-held palette like most artists. Instead, I have racks of various intensities and shades of color so that I don’t waste time mixing Once I get going, I need all the choices at my fingertips.”

Terry’s preferred medium is acrylic and her technique depends on layer upon layer of translucent color. Once the broad strokes, so full of movement and feeling, are laid down, the surface is softened and enriched with sharp splatters or mists. As the work develops, dots, bold flicks of the brush, and surface blotting of the “dots” help create atmosphere and interest, and allow colors to mix, not only on the surface, but in the eye of the beholder. Part of the excitement and beauty of every painting is the viewer’s own involvement. Our color sensitivity allows us to mix the final effect in the brain. It’s possible that no two people see the same painting exactly the same way.

“The techniques I use are my own,” says Dunlap. “But I share them with anyone who asks. Early in a career, you hesitate to pass on any of your knowledge, hoping to keep it to yourself and not have anyone else imitate you. Others can learn the techniques, but putting it together my way is all my own. No one can walk away with that. I tell my students — don’t copy what I do but take from me what you can and come up with a result that’s totally your own. Build from my knowledge to your own work. Create something only you can create. Share your new-found beauty.”

A frequent mentor to grade school and junior high age students, Terry has spent weeks working with select groups in Metro area schools, freeing them from the usual boundaries and demands of traditional painting techniques. A longtime favorite of art lovers in Colorado, she’s hoping to expand her collector base to the greater West, Texas and New Mexico and Arizona, especially. Quiet or bold, large or small, the energy in Dunlap’s work practically bounces off the canvas. In her Taos series, a sense of serenity and pure energy unite. Whatever the scale or complexity, each painting feels complete.

“I love to listen to inspirational music while I paint,” explains Dunlap. “Rock and roll, Christian, Country — whatever I feel like that day. I’m uplifted by the music and challenged by the size of my canvases. I love to work big and move from one canvas to another. Diptychs, or large pairs of paintings that work off of each other, are my favorite format. And I am always in the mood to paint–every single day. It’s something that stays with me. When I’m not able to do so, my mind is always creating, it never shuts off. Color is always with me. And when I’m gone, I’m consoled to know that the colors on my work will stay as brilliant as they are in life.”



Subjects in the artist’s current body of work focus on the simple contrast of New Mexico’s pueblos and that immense Southwestern sky, on fantasy landscapes with rolling hills and trees, and on vivid and feminine florals, reminiscent of Georgia O’Keefe. Unlike O’Keefe, however, Terry’s lush and opulent blooms are the essence of flowers.“A flower is work of God, no matter what size. It’s no more difficult for me to paint them large or small. They’re vehicles for my joy. All my paintings say what I cannot say, what I can’t even imagine putting into words. They feel sacred to me, like conversations with God.”

Dunlap admittedly paints for herself, not for a specific market or customer. Her greatest thrill is when a painting touches someone and they choose to take it home. She recently was honored by a one-woman show in Littleton, Colorado, at the Main Street Gallery. Her advice to the art lover: “Take what you need and want to take from my paintings. My pleasure comes from creating the piece. Yours comes from getting what you like and need to get from it. What you take from the painting is as important as my input. I’ve done my job—yours is hopefully to live with and enjoy the creation.”

A BIG thank you to Corrine for a beautiful post ~ and to Terry for her resilient spirit and inspirational art.  To see more of Terry’s work you may visit her website HERE, or send her an email HERE.

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Posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 12:50 am under Love It!! and . Comment RSS 2.0 feed. Comments/Pings Closed.