The Making of a Russell Chatham Lithograph
Painter and writer Russell Chatham is no stranger to Northern Michigan. He spent years wandering Leelanau County with his friend, writer Jim Harrison, and, maybe as a result, people Up North feel a particular affinity to his work. But it might just be that Chatham's haunting and evocative landscapes speak to our sense of place as they do for people throughout the world.
While Harrison has left Leelanau County and become Chatham's full-time neighbor in Livingston, Montana now, Chatham is making the journey back to Northern Michigan to speak as a part of his exhibit "Poetry of Landscape: The Seasons—Paintings by Russell Chatham" at Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City. This exhibit, which includes 28 of Chatham's stunning works, most of them oils, runs until April 6. His presentation, "An Evening with Russell Chatham at the Dennos Museum Center," follows on April 4 from 6-8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through Dennos Museum Center. Read Jeff Smith's short interview with Chatham done in anticipation of his visit, Russell Chatham To Speak at Dennos.
Chatham has been many things in his lifetime: a fly fisherman, a writer, a restaurant owner. But it is his art that has elevated him to the status of one of the most acclaimed landscape artists in America. His style and use of color is resplendent in the oils featured in this show, but Chatham is also one of the world's most recognized lithographers.
In this video, written and produced by Chatham and his publishing house, Clark City Press, Chatham lets us stand in a Montana landscape and watch as his first sketch makes it to paper, then we tag along as that image makes its way through various forms until, ultimately, it stands as one of his sought-after, numbered lithographs.
To purchase a copy of the video, contact Clark City Press.
