An American Sentinel

Bruce Cheever

An American Sentinel is a stunning painting of life in the shadows of the Grand Tetons. Bruce Cheever is an artist of exceptional talent and skill, and this is an example of his very best work.

Artist Bio

"I strive to evoke emotion in the sense of 'place,' and hope to convey a rich feeling of nostalgia for viewers by inspiring them to pay attention to the simple beauties of life."

"I consciously use harmony, balance, repetition, and spontaneity as the anchors of my compositions. Each work is carefully planned and under gridded with age-old proportions of the golden mean and root divisions."

"Every opportunity is taken to create shapes, I imagine it as a carving of positives and negatives. I use a layering of color, the 'Building of Color'; as I call it. It gives me the ability to let the under painting do the work. Under painting sets the tone of each painting and each layer contributes to the final melding. I use a careful balance of warm and cool colors along with soft and hard edges. It is like walking a tight rope to incorporate each of these elements into every subject."

"I don't believe there should be just one approach to my work. I am thrilled when anything is well crafted and thought out. I am inspired by impressionism, tonalism, realism and luminosity. I draw on each for their own individual merits. When I choose a subject, it becomes a part of me and I become a part of it, you could say that I adopt it. That's my little secret! Each piece, especially the landscapes, are hard to part with because of the mental and emotional effort given to each."

"My respect runs deep for many great artists who have shaped the world for good through their artistic contributions. Admiration and influence have come from many: Dewing, Sargent, Wyeth, Parish, Zorn, Inness and a wonderful friend and mentor Ralph Barksdale. My parents, wife and children have been vast wells of support and have strengthened my resolve when the road of learning has had some bumps. My experiences and development as an illustrator have been invaluable in the sense that my skills have been developed through hard work, training, experience and an ever growing appreciation of art."

"My hope is to inspire others through my art and to participate in reminding mankind that the world can be good if we learn to appreciate it. I am inspired by the ordinary and moved by the extraordinary and feel that both are equal in beauty if careful attention is paid to both. I thank God for his gifts to me and the ability to share them with others."

Biography courtesy of AskArt.com