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Hawkins - Great Falls Tribune 3-20-10.pdf
Big Sky Journal - Arts 2008.pdf
International Fine Art Collector - 1991.pdf
Biography
Rocky Hawkins was born in 1950 in Seattle, Washington and grew up in small towns near the Cascades Mountains. His interest in the mystery and spiritual element of the Indian culture began with childhood. Traveling with his family to historic locations that conveyed Native American history, he was taken with the beauty and mysticism of the Indians individual expression. After finishing high school, he enrolled in college art classes then later attended the Burnley School of Art in Seattle. His art career began with illustration and commercial art but he found it didn't fulfill his creative need and desire for self-expression. This realization led to his introduction into the world of fine art painting. His search to connect more closely with Native American inspiration has led him to reside in Montana.
Enthralled with the lore and spirituality of American Indian cultures, his work often depicts these traditional subjects in nontraditional ways. Hawkins captures the raw sense of elements - natural, emotional and cultural. Raw anger. Raw sorrow. Raw vision. And that is a mysterious thing to explain, but even more mysterious to behold. Unlike the classical approach of most Western artists, Rocky Hawkins asks a bit more from each of us who stop to admire one of his paintings: trust.
Hawkins often begins with a small study that becomes a catalyst for his larger pieces. He is quick to point out that he is not a storyteller-his concerns are not about where a horse is going or how fast it is running, he explains. But he is interested in the texture of the painting's surface, the relationships of colors, and expressing a feeling about what he sees. Hawkins looks to the Abstract Expressionists as kindred artistic souls-Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and others. Within his Abstract Expressionist images, Rocky Hawkins paints with the gesture of water, the translation of its sound, the suggestion of it, so that a viewer may not see, but will likely sense the flow of the element in a painting.
Artist Statement
“My paintings are about expressing a visual experience that challenges and communicates with a sense of mystery. Mystery is a human trait and curious characteristic where not everything is easily explainable.
I begin each painting with a journey into the unknown, where getting lost becomes the answer to which direction to take. I find the moment I’m lost is when I really discover the enjoyment of painting and who I am.
I start by making gestures with colors and shapes, adding and subtracting abbreviated images and embracing the unpremeditated. At times I use automatism, that is, drawing or painting in the subconscious with no preconceived composition in mind.
I use my innate passion for abstraction with fragmented strokes and color resulting in a glimpse of what might be. My early education in art school and with realist painters has given me the creative ability to weave in partial realism when I feel it works with a particular piece.
In my most recent work I am exploring my interest with the shape and color of the natural world, the entanglement of antlers resulting in abstract shape and texture and the fasciation with repetition and patterns.
As a painter of fine art, I am in a constant state of challenging myself in technique, subject and mediums. By allowing myself to not be afraid to grow, I can take that necessary risk and journey of self discovery.
Most of the time I use either oil or acrylic but some of my work is an assemblage of painting, my own photography, cut outs, journal pages, newspaper, fabric, and other applications. It is a process that I have embraced since my early days in art school. Other times it is simply about the paint and what I can do with it.”
Resume
ART EDUCATION
• Burnley School of Professional Art (Seattle Art Institute) , Seattle, 1969-72
• William Cumming, – painters Northwest School of Artists – 1969-72
• Joesph Bohler – Watercolorist – studied with – 1985
• Sergei Bongart – Russian painter – studied with – 1986
• David A. Leffel – Painter, Art Student League, NY – studied with – 1987
SELECT SHOWS, EXHIBITIONS
• “Uproar” Endangered Species – Visions West Contemporary – June 2017
• Museum Of The Rockies Art Auction – July 2017
• Yellowstone Art Museum Art Auction – March 2017
• “Forgotten” – Visions West Contemporary – 2016
• Heather James Fine Art -“Keep The Spirit” two person show – 2014
• Q Art Salon – “Metaphysics of Presence”lgroup show – Santa Ana, CA – 2014
• “We Are All Connected” – solo show – Visions West Contemporary – 2014
• “Contemporary Perspectives of the Rocky Mountain Region ” McNichols Building Denver CO. 2014
• L.A. Art Expo – 2014
• Now Showing – Altamira Fine Art – Scottsdale – 2014
• “Full Spectrum” Visions West – Denver CO – 2012
• Rocky Hawkins & Kim Cheslka – Visions West Gallery – 2012
• Altamira Fine Art – Solo Show – Jackson, WY – “Bending The Bow” 2012
• Vital Ground – Presentation – Deer Valley, UT – 2010
• Altamira Fine Art – Solo Exhibition – Jackson, WY – “Lost At Last” 2010
• The Russell: The Sale To Benefit The Museum- Art In Action 2010
• Visions West Denver – Howl – group show NRDC Wolf Preservation –2010
• MTG – Jackson, WY – slide show & evening with the artist – 2009
• Smith Exhibitions – Roslyn, WA – “Shape Changers” – 2009
• Visions West Gallery –solo show– “Pow Wow Highway ” 2008
• Santa Fe Art Auction – 2007
• CMR Auction – Auction – demonstration – 2007
• Planet Bronze – invitational group show – 2006
• Museum Of the Rockies Bozeman, MT – 2006 – 2007
• Yellowstone Art Museum Auction 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
• Mountain West Contemporary Art Auction, 2003
• Bjorge Gallery, Big Fork, MT
• Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture, MT 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005, 2006
• Contemporary Fine Arts, Vail, Co.
• Joe Wade Fine Arts, Santa Fe, N.M.
• MTG, Bozeman, MT.
• Concetta D. Gallery, Albuquerque, N.M.
• L.A. Art Expo, Los Angeles, Ca. – 1998
• New York Art Expo, NYC. – 1997
• Mary Anthony Gallery, NYC
• Eye Of The Lizard, Vero Beach, FL.
• Burnt Purple Fine Art
• Badner Melnick Gallery, Vail, Co.
• Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe, N.M.
• Martin Harris Gallery, Jackson Wy.
• Third Canyon Gallery, Denver, Co.
• Center Street Gallery, Jackson Wy.
• Gallery Select, Seattle, Wa.
• Hole In The Wall Gallery, Mt
• C.M.R. Art Show, Great Falls, Mt. – Exhibition. Auction & Awards 1985 through 2011
• N.W. Watercolorist Society, Bellevue, Wa. (Award)
• Spokane Art Show, Spokane, Wa. (Best of Show 1988)
• Snowbird Gallery, Snowbird, Ut.
PUBLICATIONS – CREDITS
• 2017 “SPECIES” book
• 2017 issue – American Art Collector
• Mountain Living Magazine – Cover Art – Nov/Dec 2014
• New York Times 3/13/2014 Artist & Painting Mention & Photograph
• Homestead Magazine – article 8/27/2014
• “Artist Journey” – Film – 2012
• “Bending The Bow’ – Book – 2012
• Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman MT – Slide Presentation & Lecture
• Northwest Artisans – feature article – winter issue 2002
• Big Sky Journal – Illustration – 1994
• International Fine Art Collector – Article 1992
• “Bird with a Broken Wing” – Book cover – 1993
• US Art – feature article – August 1999
• Cowboys and Indians – photo & caption 2000
• Limited Edition Giclee Prints – 2002 – present
• Southwest Art – article – 2001
• Various Newspaper articles – 1990 – 2010
• “He Sees Her” – Book cover – 1995
• Limited edition posters – 1990 – 1994
• Iris Prints – 1997
• Big Sky Journal – feature article and cover story Arts Issue 2008
• Western Art Collector – article 2012
• Southwest Art – feature article 2010
• Western Art Collector – feature article 2010
• Western Art & Architecture – feature article 2010
Rocky Hawkins was born in 1950 in Seattle, Washington and grew up in small towns near the Cascades Mountains. His interest in the mystery and spiritual element of the Indian culture began with childhood. Traveling with his family to historic locations that conveyed Native American history, he was taken with the beauty and mysticism of the Indians individual expression. After finishing high school, he enrolled in college art classes then later attended the Burnley School of Art in Seattle. His art career began with illustration and commercial art but he found it didn't fulfill his creative need and desire for self-expression. This realization led to his introduction into the world of fine art painting. His search to connect more closely with Native American inspiration has led him to reside in Montana.
Enthralled with the lore and spirituality of American Indian cultures, his work often depicts these traditional subjects in nontraditional ways. Hawkins captures the raw sense of elements - natural, emotional and cultural. Raw anger. Raw sorrow. Raw vision. And that is a mysterious thing to explain, but even more mysterious to behold. Unlike the classical approach of most Western artists, Rocky Hawkins asks a bit more from each of us who stop to admire one of his paintings: trust.
Hawkins often begins with a small study that becomes a catalyst for his larger pieces. He is quick to point out that he is not a storyteller-his concerns are not about where a horse is going or how fast it is running, he explains. But he is interested in the texture of the painting's surface, the relationships of colors, and expressing a feeling about what he sees. Hawkins looks to the Abstract Expressionists as kindred artistic souls-Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and others. Within his Abstract Expressionist images, Rocky Hawkins paints with the gesture of water, the translation of its sound, the suggestion of it, so that a viewer may not see, but will likely sense the flow of the element in a painting.
Artist Statement
“My paintings are about expressing a visual experience that challenges and communicates with a sense of mystery. Mystery is a human trait and curious characteristic where not everything is easily explainable.
I begin each painting with a journey into the unknown, where getting lost becomes the answer to which direction to take. I find the moment I’m lost is when I really discover the enjoyment of painting and who I am.
I start by making gestures with colors and shapes, adding and subtracting abbreviated images and embracing the unpremeditated. At times I use automatism, that is, drawing or painting in the subconscious with no preconceived composition in mind.
I use my innate passion for abstraction with fragmented strokes and color resulting in a glimpse of what might be. My early education in art school and with realist painters has given me the creative ability to weave in partial realism when I feel it works with a particular piece.
In my most recent work I am exploring my interest with the shape and color of the natural world, the entanglement of antlers resulting in abstract shape and texture and the fasciation with repetition and patterns.
As a painter of fine art, I am in a constant state of challenging myself in technique, subject and mediums. By allowing myself to not be afraid to grow, I can take that necessary risk and journey of self discovery.
Most of the time I use either oil or acrylic but some of my work is an assemblage of painting, my own photography, cut outs, journal pages, newspaper, fabric, and other applications. It is a process that I have embraced since my early days in art school. Other times it is simply about the paint and what I can do with it.”
Resume
ART EDUCATION
• Burnley School of Professional Art (Seattle Art Institute) , Seattle, 1969-72
• William Cumming, – painters Northwest School of Artists – 1969-72
• Joesph Bohler – Watercolorist – studied with – 1985
• Sergei Bongart – Russian painter – studied with – 1986
• David A. Leffel – Painter, Art Student League, NY – studied with – 1987
SELECT SHOWS, EXHIBITIONS
• “Uproar” Endangered Species – Visions West Contemporary – June 2017
• Museum Of The Rockies Art Auction – July 2017
• Yellowstone Art Museum Art Auction – March 2017
• “Forgotten” – Visions West Contemporary – 2016
• Heather James Fine Art -“Keep The Spirit” two person show – 2014
• Q Art Salon – “Metaphysics of Presence”lgroup show – Santa Ana, CA – 2014
• “We Are All Connected” – solo show – Visions West Contemporary – 2014
• “Contemporary Perspectives of the Rocky Mountain Region ” McNichols Building Denver CO. 2014
• L.A. Art Expo – 2014
• Now Showing – Altamira Fine Art – Scottsdale – 2014
• “Full Spectrum” Visions West – Denver CO – 2012
• Rocky Hawkins & Kim Cheslka – Visions West Gallery – 2012
• Altamira Fine Art – Solo Show – Jackson, WY – “Bending The Bow” 2012
• Vital Ground – Presentation – Deer Valley, UT – 2010
• Altamira Fine Art – Solo Exhibition – Jackson, WY – “Lost At Last” 2010
• The Russell: The Sale To Benefit The Museum- Art In Action 2010
• Visions West Denver – Howl – group show NRDC Wolf Preservation –2010
• MTG – Jackson, WY – slide show & evening with the artist – 2009
• Smith Exhibitions – Roslyn, WA – “Shape Changers” – 2009
• Visions West Gallery –solo show– “Pow Wow Highway ” 2008
• Santa Fe Art Auction – 2007
• CMR Auction – Auction – demonstration – 2007
• Planet Bronze – invitational group show – 2006
• Museum Of the Rockies Bozeman, MT – 2006 – 2007
• Yellowstone Art Museum Auction 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
• Mountain West Contemporary Art Auction, 2003
• Bjorge Gallery, Big Fork, MT
• Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture, MT 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005, 2006
• Contemporary Fine Arts, Vail, Co.
• Joe Wade Fine Arts, Santa Fe, N.M.
• MTG, Bozeman, MT.
• Concetta D. Gallery, Albuquerque, N.M.
• L.A. Art Expo, Los Angeles, Ca. – 1998
• New York Art Expo, NYC. – 1997
• Mary Anthony Gallery, NYC
• Eye Of The Lizard, Vero Beach, FL.
• Burnt Purple Fine Art
• Badner Melnick Gallery, Vail, Co.
• Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe, N.M.
• Martin Harris Gallery, Jackson Wy.
• Third Canyon Gallery, Denver, Co.
• Center Street Gallery, Jackson Wy.
• Gallery Select, Seattle, Wa.
• Hole In The Wall Gallery, Mt
• C.M.R. Art Show, Great Falls, Mt. – Exhibition. Auction & Awards 1985 through 2011
• N.W. Watercolorist Society, Bellevue, Wa. (Award)
• Spokane Art Show, Spokane, Wa. (Best of Show 1988)
• Snowbird Gallery, Snowbird, Ut.
PUBLICATIONS – CREDITS
• 2017 “SPECIES” book
• 2017 issue – American Art Collector
• Mountain Living Magazine – Cover Art – Nov/Dec 2014
• New York Times 3/13/2014 Artist & Painting Mention & Photograph
• Homestead Magazine – article 8/27/2014
• “Artist Journey” – Film – 2012
• “Bending The Bow’ – Book – 2012
• Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman MT – Slide Presentation & Lecture
• Northwest Artisans – feature article – winter issue 2002
• Big Sky Journal – Illustration – 1994
• International Fine Art Collector – Article 1992
• “Bird with a Broken Wing” – Book cover – 1993
• US Art – feature article – August 1999
• Cowboys and Indians – photo & caption 2000
• Limited Edition Giclee Prints – 2002 – present
• Southwest Art – article – 2001
• Various Newspaper articles – 1990 – 2010
• “He Sees Her” – Book cover – 1995
• Limited edition posters – 1990 – 1994
• Iris Prints – 1997
• Big Sky Journal – feature article and cover story Arts Issue 2008
• Western Art Collector – article 2012
• Southwest Art – feature article 2010
• Western Art Collector – feature article 2010
• Western Art & Architecture – feature article 2010