Grand Teton Summer Painting

Dane Sellers is a young landscape painter living in the American Southwest. Born in 2004, he is originally from Utah, however, he now resides in Arizona. His artistic journey began as a young child visiting his maternal grandparent's "gallery-like" home and visiting the galleries in Park City, Utah including Mountain Trails Gallery , Montgomery Lee Fine Arts, and Park City Fine Art. Aside from the artists in his grandparent's collection, the French Impressionist Claude Monet was the first artist he truly studied. Of course, as a young child, the subject matter and the colors attracted him, however, there was a deeper attraction that would take him about ten years to be able to uncover. After Monet, he discovered the original cowboy artists, Frederick Remington and Charles Russell. To this day, he still considers them, in particular Remington, to be two of the most important artists in his development as an oil painter. However, art has never been the only passion Dane has had. His maternal grandfather instilled a lifelong obsession of golf at a very young age. His dream was to play professionally on the PGA Tour with the likes of Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele and fellow Utah native, Tony Finau. Despite playing competitively and becoming a scratch player, a golf career just wasn't in the cards for him. Aside from golf, baseball became a very definitive aspect of his life throughout his childhood and teenage years. From Little League, to school teams, to club teams, he played close to 15 years non stop. However, before his senior season, his pitching shoulder gave out, leading to end of of his baseball career. While not obvious on the surface, there are numerous similarities between athletic competition and painting, the most important being related to the mentality of both. Today, Scott L. Christensen, Clyde Aspevig, Jim Wilcox, Matt Smith, Grant Redden, and James Reynolds, Bill Anton, and Ken Carlson are just a few of the many "modern masters" that he studies daily. He finds the landscape of the American West to give him the most inspiration, particularly the "less obvious" and intimate scenes. Whether it's a couple of junipers in the late afternoon, or simply just a single sagebrush plant, the texture, depth, and contrast excite his creative senses. He believes that a strong composition can be found anywhere. Despite being a college freshman, he still tries to find time to paint with his busy schedule.