Artist Talk with Chuck Ceraso

Join
us at the Museum of Boulder for an artist talk with local artist and
instructor Chuck Ceraso. Broaden your vision, learn about painting,
drawing and more, from the real life perspective of a professional
artist.

Chuck Ceraso :

Chuck
Ceraso studied art at the University of Notre Dame and painting with
Henry Hensche, at the Cape School in ProvinceTown, MA.

Chuck has
been a sought after instructor at the Denver Art Museum, the Art
Students League of Denver and the Arvada Center for the Arts and
Humanities for many years. He also holds ongoing classes in his gallery
and studio in Lafayette, CO. His work can be found in public and private
collections throughout the U.S. and Europe.

“I learned that
visual perception is much more complex than I had ever imagined. I
learned that what we think we see and what’s actually in front of us can
be quite divergent. We’re taught from childhood that our job with
seeing is to know the names of things, cat, house, ball, tree, etc. and
with that we actually lose our visual curiosity. We see a tree and
because we “know” what a tree is we don’t see the rhythmical patterns in
the limbs and leaves, we don’t see the patterns of light and shadow, we
don’t see the colors that the light produces. This conceptual focus
actually teaches us to not see.

Hensche would encourage us to
discover more of what the world really looks like by letting go of what
we think we know about it. I learned to look at the world as if I had
never seen it before and have been mesmerized and inspired by the color
and beauty that surrounds us.

I’ve also been discovering the more
kinesthetic aspect of taking in the world. In letting go of my concepts
I’m discovering that there is a way I can be permeated by the world.
That the beauty of a tree exists inside me, as well as the tree itself.
This has been the biggest surprise of looking outwardly, that it all
exists within my field of awareness. There is no real distinction
between me and the things I see.

All of this I attempt to capture
in my painting. It seems to be most successful when I paint
spontaneously and quickly, without letting my mind get into the
process.”

From a student, “Chuck has such an expansive, curious
and loving nature that it changes the way I view my world. This nature
comes through in his painting as well as his teaching.”