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From the rolling hills of Minnesota lake country
to the vast horizon of North Dakota's fields,
Fargo artist Dan Jones, doesn't have to venture far
to find his inspiration.
No matter what the medium-- oil, watercolor, or charcoal,
Dan evokes feelings of home through his amazing landscapes.
[acoustic guitar plays softly]
(Dan) I love these old barns,
'cause they're just, you know,
half of 'em are almost falling down.
♫
That's the nice thing about being a painter in Fargo is
you don't have to drive very far to get in the-- 30 miles east
and you're into some really interesting landscape.
Then it's the patterns in the fields,
in the, you know, created by the rolling hills
or the way the light's playing off the lake.
(Steve Johnson) Dan originally did some of his own framing,
but I pretty much in the past, probably 6 or 7 years,
taken over doing all of his framing.
Lots of people, when they're in looking at the pieces
kind of recognize where the picture was taken from
or it reminds them of somewhere they grew up in North Dakota,
or lived or had been on vacation.
And I think that that's part of the appeal is,
it kind of makes people feel like they're at home.
(Laurel Reuter) Dan is the artist he is, I think,
because he lives in this Red River Valley,
that the landscape truly informs his work.
(Dan) Worked as a carpenter for years,
ended up going to NDSU,
I thought I'd get an architecture degree.
I had to take a drawing class and really enjoyed it,
really got into it, and so I went
to the University of Minnesota the second year.
Most of the professors there
were abstract expressionists out of New York.
I was trying to learn how to paint
in a much more traditional manner.
I looked backwards to teach myself,
looked at previous artists' work,
got to the museums whenever I could to see them in person,
and did copies of old masters.
Most of the stuff that I did was figurative,
and the landscape came much later.
I think it's very rare to come across an artist
who is self-taught the way Dan is.
That mostly people come out of school,
and maybe that's why his art doesn't look academic.
When I get into making them,
I get a lot of enjoyment out of them
no matter what type of medium I'm using.
I'm always looking for a fun new way to paint the flatness! [laughs]
He could be defined mainly as an oil painter,
but he's added some watercolor
and his charcoal and pastels are beautiful.
So he's definitely a drawer also, and I think to paint well,
you do have to know how to draw well.
I don't know anyone else who draws as well
and uses it for such big statements.
[with emotion] April 7th, 2009...
a day that will live in infamy.
I think Dan's getting well after this aneurysm,
owes a lot to the terrific support
he received from other artists.
They really love the man.
His friends would go out to Bismarck
where he was in a rehab center, and they would go out,
and they would paint in the landscape.
(Dan) To have survived it and still have
the ability to do my work is-- I'm a pretty lucky guy.
North Dakota Museum of Art
and in particular the director, Laurel Reuter,
have been hugely supportive of me over the years.
(Laurel) I began to think that I should do
a big charcoal drawing exhibition
to push him back into making drawings,
'cause I think his drawings are spectacular.
She just a asked me if I'd be interested in doing a show.
Yeah! [laughs]
Grew up here and grew up
hanging around the lakes in the summertime.
To have a chance to do some different, some large scale,
and I'm doing some smaller ones, some medium ones,
and hopefully a couple of really large.
I want his drawings to be huge.
I think something about the size and the drama of a charcoal
is attractive to people.
This one looks pretty close to the actual spot.
A lot of times they don't, they change to the point where
I let go of the photo image or whatever
and just working on it as a piece
with its own personality and it's own needs.
The most successful work is always work
that engages you, the viewer, so that you have to finish it.
And the fact that the drawings are in charcoal,
means there's no color giving you any clues.
But you don't need the color 'cause you fill it in,
and then it becomes more personal.
It's a conversation between you and the artist.
My paintings are much like my children.
I want them to go off and be successful,
so when they sell, I get very fond of them then.
That's a true mark of success, you know,
to make something that somebody enjoys enough to take home.