Meet Lanny Grant | artist

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

Hi Lanny, why did you pursue a creative career?
I started drawing and painting around the age of ten so I have enjoyed a lifetime of creating art. My early beginnings as an artist were mostly for my own enjoyment in trying to capture images and moods of places I knew in the mountains of Colorado. When I was thirteen I was fortunate to meet a great artist named Ben Turner, who lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico but also had a summer home and studio in Redstone, Colorado. Ben was the first real artist I had ever met and he made a huge impression on me. Turner painted many of the same mountain scenes that I had grown up with, so his skill was a great incentive for me to learn more about traditional painting. I also began to realize that artists like Turner could make a career out of painting, so I began to consider the value of my paintings and the potential for selling them to continue developing my abilities. After graduating from Rifle High School in 1971 I attended Adams State College for a year to study painting, art history and life drawing. I studied with another great artist, Ramon Froman, from Dallas, Texas at his summer art school in Cloudcroft, New Mexico in 1972, 1973 & 1974, then started selling my work through the Arthur J. Merrill Gallery in Taos, New Mexico.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Although I have known and studied with several great artists in my life, I am primarily self-taught- applying the five fundamentals: Observation, Drawing, Design, Values & Color. When I studied with Ramon Froman in New Mexico, he gave his students these five essential fundamentals as the building blocks in creating successful paintings.
It takes years of dedicated work and practice to learn to truly ‘see’ the subjects you are wanting to paint, and then to accurately draw the forms. Simplification, or editing, to make a design work is also essential- as is an interesting pattern of values and the power of color to convey the message of your painting.
Whenever I set up to paint, especially outside on location, I tell my self that ‘I am in school today’ and consider each experience as a lesson from Nature. Painting directly from Nature, with all of the challenges of changing light and weather, is important in learning to quickly capture fleeting color in a landscape. The experience can’t be duplicated when working with photographs in a studio, so the time spent outdoors is truly vital to an artist. It takes repeated effort to eventually get accurate field studies, which are invaluable reference when working on larger studio paintings. I have always made an effort with my work to ‘be true to Nature’ and have tried to do my best to share with the viewer of my paintings what I experienced there.

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.
One of our favorite areas here in Colorado is the Crystal River Valley near Carbondale. Lunch or dinner at the Redstone Inn is always a highlight during a day of sketching and painting the beautiful scenery in the valley.
My work is also represented by the Redstone Art Gallery, so I am often delivering new work there. The historic Redstone Inn also offers great accommodations or there are several Forest Service campgrounds in the valley
to choose from. Further up the valley is the old town of Marble- home of the Yule Creek marble quarry and there’s a great restaurant called Slow Grooving BBQ.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to dedicate my ‘shoutout’ feature to my wife, Rebecca Swain Grant, who is also a dedicated artist. We are fortunate to share a love of creating art and for our love of Nature.

Website: https://www.lannygrantfineart.com