Works by Gil Dellinger that have been sold at Scottsdale Fine Art.

“I've always been fascinated by light and its effect on color and textures. I try to emphasize the positive in my work, something that uplifts and enhances.  I love the greatness of this country and strive to compliment it with what I do.”

Gil Dellinger is perhaps the best known painter in the Northern California region.  He taught drawing, figure drawing, illustration, painting, and design for 30 years at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award for teaching excellence and professional accomplishments. After the many years of teaching art at the university level, Gil now has the opportunity to paint full time.  He is passionate about his work and is often in the studio for stretches of 10 hours or more a day.  “What keeps me going is the goal of sharing with people the beauty and complexity of this Earth,” he says.

Dellinger came late to painting. "I opened a book of Vermeer in college and saw, Woman with a Red Hat, and it changed my life."  As a Dutch baroque painter, Vermeer is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work. (This is a recurring theme in all of Gil Dellinger’s paintings.) The Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century and then the 19th century works of artists such as Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt focus on the viewer being able to transcend everyday life, and Gil feels, as these early artists felt, that this is basic to our needs in order to understand and appreciate all that is beautiful in the world. Gil feels a tie and responsibility to respect these artists and to bring the transcendent quality into the present day by painting with a motive that brings beauty, elegance, and a bit of romance to what we experience here and now.

The Vermeer experience informed the rest of Gil Dellinger’s life. Dellinger took up drawing at age 26 and has since participated in over 300 group and one-person exhibitions throughout the United States.  Dellinger curated, and was one of 50 national artists to participate in, two major exhibitions at the Haggin Museum, Yosemite (2001) and “Sea to Shining Sea: A Reflection of America” (2004). In 2005, Dellinger participated in the prestigious Plein Air Painters of America Show in Tahoe, California, the Plein Air Masters Mentor Program in the Vienne Region of France, and the Cumberland Island Paint-Out in Georgia.  In 2007, he assisted in organizing and participated in From the Heart, at the Haggin Museum, the first museum show of the Plein-Air Painters of America.

While still creating sparkling pastels, Dellinger paints exclusively in acrylic, a medium the artist embraced after years of working in oil. Toxicity to the solvent and binders in the oil paints forced this transition. However as a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, Gil Dellinger excels in his pastel painting. Painting from life, his work captures majestic landscapes, peaceful pastoral scenes, the drama of the Pacific Ocean, florals, and any scene that catches his eye. His masterful technique is extraordinary. Dellinger feels the pigments and colors are an extension of his heart, and capture his feelings like no other medium. He has been called a "Master Pastelist" by the Pastel Society of America.  His approach to the acrylic medium stems from his proficiency in his pastel work, and he develops layer after glazy layer of the paint to achieve the same luminous effects as in the pastels.

All of Gil’s paintings are, as he says, “utterly immersed in light.” Gil uses this radiant focus to capture a scene’s feeling so precisely that the viewer almost feels the temperature and smell in the air. “Even if I paint an overcast winter day there is a certain quality of the diffuse sunlight in the chill.”  Recently, Dellinger has turned to painting large paintings because, skillfully done, the view becomes even more absorbed in the mood, space and temperature. Painting the light, no matter what the subject matter or size and whether in Big Sur, the Canadian Rockies, the English countryside, or Italy, we see the early influence of his first encounter with the Vermeer and the light on that Woman with a Red Hat.

Dellinger was selected as one of the 22 artists to be invited as guests at the Forbes Chateau in Balleroy, France to paint for a 10 days in 1997. In 1996, he was selected by American Artist magazine as one of 12 artists to paint on the Forbes/Trinchera Ranch near Durango, Colorado which was featured in the January 1997 issue of American Artist Magazine and the works from the event was shown at the Forbes Magazine Building gallery in New York at a special exhibition.

In 1999, Dellinger was one of fifteen artists chosen by the Grand Canyon Trust to raft the Colorado River at the Grand Canyon and paint for ten days. The resulting show of works resulted in an exhibition at Forbes Gallery in New York in January 2001. The exhibit became the centerpiece for articles in American Artist Magazine and Art of the West.

AWARDS AND HONORS:
Four awards for landscape painting; Pastel Society of America, and named a Signature Member and a Master Pastellist.
Three time inclusion in top 100 Arts for the Parks.
Award for Landscape painting; California State Fair
Carmel Artist’s Association Artist’s Choice award in 2001 for the Plein Air Festival
1990 Distinguished Faculty Award; for teaching excellence and contribution to field; University of the Pacific
1991 Eberhard Teacher/Scholar Award; University of the Pacific
2000 Stockton STAR Award for contribution to community arts.
2003 Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society Western Regional Award for Artists
2004 Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society Award for National Artist of the triennium, 2004 to 2007

EVENTS:
American Artist paints Colorado: 22 artists painting at the Forbes Ranch
American Artist Paints France: 22 Artists at the Forbes Chateau in Normandy
Chosen by the Grand Canyon Trust to raft the Colorado River and paint as an environmental fundraiser for the Trust.
Curator for Twenty Five Artists paint Yosemite, an exhibition at the Haggin Museum in Stockton, California in 2001
Co-Curator for SEA TO SHINING SEA a museum traveling exhibit opening in May 2004 and traveling to 7 museums.

SOCIETIES AND PUBLICATIONS:
Signature member of the Pastel Society of America, The Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, and the California Art Club.
Invitee Plein Air Painters of America, Laguna Plein Air Painters, Sonora, and Carmel “Paint out” events.
Featured in numerous articles in The Artist’s Magazine, American Artist and the Pastel Journal
Featured in Painting with Passion and the Many Moods of Light both published by North Light Press

COLLECTIONS:
The Haggin Museum, the Forbes Museum Gallery, The Forbes Family, Kaiser Permanente, The University of the Pacific, Jean and Linda Stern, Nicholas Cage, and over 500 private collections.