Medium and Support: Acrylic, color pencil, and oil crayon on paper

Accession Number: 2024.0003.0003

Credit Line: Gift of Rebecca and Jack Drake

Tim Denny is a painter born in Sycamore, Alabama and currently residing in Birmingham, Alabama. Denny views his art as an outlet for storytelling, once stating: “I am less of a painter anyway. More of a discoverer, I think.” (1) His upbringing in Alabama is reflected in much of his work as he often depicts rural areas, farm animals, and even Southern slang terms and phrases. Still, though, his work is largely abstract in nature, requiring the viewer to look beyond the surface to find meaning.

The piece Taking the Short Cut Across the Conjurer’s Pasture depicts a countryside, complete with a farm gate and pond. Denny’s use of color shows the variations in the landscape, from the yellows and greens of grass to dark orange, characteristic of the bright orange clay that makes up much of the American South. While many see similar sights every day, Denny highlights that there is beauty to be found in the mundanity of nature.

(1) Artist Statement for Space One Eleven Arts Center (2021), https://spaceoneeleven.org/exhibition-archive/35th-anniversary-exhibition-iii/tim-denny/