by  Josh Carpenter



DENVER – There are two keys to Dennis Miner being successful.

Stay loose.

Stay patient.

When he does that, the Denver resident’s paintings come to life.

Miner, who moved to the area in January, has been painting for most of his life and will enter his oil paintings into the Denver Art Trail next month.

“It just takes patience and time,” Miner said.

“I guess it’s just a challenge to get something down that you’re pleased with when you’re finished without overdoing it. You’re always learning techniques so it’s kind of a continuing learning process.”

Miner grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and went to school at the Rochester Institute of Technology for graphic design.

Artistry is something that runs in his family.

His father was an artist; his great-great grandfather’s painting of a line of fish hangs in his office. So does one of his great aunt’s best works.

Relatives dating back to the early 1800s were even painters.

“They were house painters, though,” Miner joked. “I guess you could say it’s in my blood.”

He wasn’t a family member, but time spent under legend George Ortman was important to Miner’s success.

“That’s always good to have kind of like an old master to hang around with and learn from,” Miner said. “I think that’s very important.”

Miner dabbled in watercolors, but found his true joy with oils, winning a state competition in Arizona during his college years.

Oil painting leaves a little more room for change, he said.

“You can paint over oils or scrape it off and it gives you a chance to sit back and fix a couple things,” Miner said. “You get more textures and a little more feel. Also just because some of the artwork that was being done in oil, I really enjoyed that.”

Jessica Moss, office and studio manager at the Braitman Studio Art School in Charlotte, said oil painting is a completely different medium than other types.

“With oil paint, you’re really concerned about building the paint instead of blending,” Moss said. “It’s all about working with what happens. But all of these types of painting are different mediums. For each one, you have to treat it differently.”

Miner mostly paints landscapes these days.

Pictures of a lighthouse and an old truck adorn his walls.

He’s been working recently on small painting of a Georgia salt marsh.

“For me, it’s about getting a good subject,” Miner said. “Sometimes it’s flipping through a magazine or finding an old picture. I guess, too, to stay loose but still have enough detail so it looks good.”

Miner spends maybe 15-20 hours a week, just enough to keep him busy.

“It’s one of those things, kind of like golf, where you’re always trying to get better,” Miner said. “You figure out how to make things a little easier.”

Other painters in the Denver Art Trail:

• Rob Freet

• Susan Redmond

• Dene Scott-Smith

• William Walker

• Mary Crow

• Pat Hawn