Meet Chuck Ceraso | Artist and instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chuck Ceraso and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chuck, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I started college as a math major. Second year calculus lost me and I decided I didn’t want to be a mathematician but had no idea what else I might want to do. I considered psychology and writing as majors, heavily leaning toward psychology. But still that didn’t seem like it lit me up that much..

I took an introductory studio art course, thinking it’d be an easy grade, but as I had never done any artwork, I wasn’t thinking it would be anything more than that.

Turns out I fell in love with drawing and painting in a way I had never felt before. Even math, my first great academic love had never been as strong or consuming.

I wasn’t sure what to do with that, but after lots of conversations with my teacher, father and friends, I decided to change my major to art. I have never regretted that decision.

Rather than feeling like I pursued art, its more like it pursued me. I am left a willing and grateful pawn of the creative forces that seem to reside somewhere inside my being.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I was initially motivated to capture my visual and kinesthetic experience of the landscape in paint. As I explored that over the years, I realized that my perception of nature was more the result of my own expectations, prejudices and conceptions of what was before me than it was of pure observation.

I had the good fortune to meet and study with Henry Hensche, who was an American painter that was highly influenced by Claude Monet and Charles Hawthorne. Hawthorne, along with many American painters at the time, went to France, painted along side Monet and learned a way of seeing color that changed his work. He came back to the states and started a school in 1899 that was dedicated to teaching this vision. Hensche came along in 1920 and studied with Hawthorne, becoming his teaching assistant, and then led the school when Hawthorne died in 1930.

When I first saw Hensche’s paintings I was so moved I wept. He brought the depiction of light and form to a level beyond what I had seen in Monet’s work. I couldn’t comprehend how he managed that. I experimented on my own for a couple of years, then realized I couldn’t find the color harmonies and luminosity I saw in his work, so I studied with him and learned a way of using the eyes, a kind of soft vision and scanning that made it easier to see the color in nature. It seems like it should be a rather straightforward thing, there’s the color, what is it? I’ve learned it much more complex than that and that color perception itself is an art form that requires long study and development.

It’s actually endlessly difficult, if not impossible, to really see the incredible colors in nature and translate them into pigment, but also endlessly rewarding. I find my fascination with seeing the world has only become stronger over the years. It amazes me that how I see the world can change as I learn to become more and more aware of what’s in front of me and less and less thinking I have any idea of what that is. I’ve really learned that by dropping any and all ideas, I have a greater chance of actually seeing something true.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The first and most spectacular thing about this area, is the land. With the gorgeous mountains, lakes and plains there is a beauty here that cannot be over imbibed through hiking, biking and skiing. So my visiting friend can expect to do all three of those things both locally and on trips into the mountains.

Denver has so much to offer with world class art museums, like the Denver Art Museum, Clifford Still Museum, the MCA, great concert venues like Fiddler’s Green and Red Rocks Amphitheater and wonderful dining opportunities. I’d take my friend to one of the museums then follow with dinner at maybe Root Down or Capital Grille or WaterCourse.

There’s also great theater in both Denver and Boulder, so in Boulder, dinner at say Chautauqua Dining Hall or the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse then catching a theater show or concert at the Boulder Dairy.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I can’t remember her name, it was over 50 years ago, but the young woman grad student who taught the intro studio art course was singularly responsible for my choosing a career in art. We had many long talks when I discovered this passion for making art and was considering it as a major. She was amazing in listening to and encouraging me to pursue an art degree.

I also had the good fortune, several years later, to study with an artist, Henry Hensche. A friend of mine had studied with him and showed me some of his work a collector in a nearby town had. I cried when I saw his paintings. They captured light in a way I had never before seen; even, in my opinion, surpassing Monet in his ability to create landscapes glowing with light.

I would bring a body to work to Henry for him to critique and advise me on. On one such visit he had mentioned that he just had cataract surgery and couldn’t paint and didn’t know what to do with himself. I suggested I come and stay with him and he could work with me while his eyes recovered. I ended up staying with him for a month. It completely changed my life, both as a painter and as a person. I now knew what it was like to have a life vision and the passion to pursue it.

Website: www.cerasogallery.com

Instagram: chuck_ceraso_gallery

Facebook: Ceraso Gallery and Studio

Youtube: Chuck Ceraso