Damon Denys

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Damon Denys, from Catalyst Magazine, photographer B.M. Russell

Damon Denys (13 December 1974 – ) is a contemporary American artist working out of Salt Lake City, Utah, the bay area, California, and Scottsdale, Arizona. He is an oil painter, mainly figurative, working in the styles of romantic realism and Classical realism. Third son and youngest child of Texas-born western landscape painter, George Frederick Denys, Jr., his full name is Damon-Armand Heslington Denys. He was born and raised in Orem, Utah.

Part of the burgeoning figurative realist art revival movement in Salt Lake City at the beginning of the 21st century, he graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in art history and attended Cambridge University, England, where he studied art conservation and restoration. His studies in Britain paralleled his interest in the works of the Pre-Raphaelite and Classical artists of Victorian England, particularly John Everett Millais, Frederick Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, whom he has openly stated have greatly influenced his art.

Like the Pre-Raphaelite painter William Holman Hunt in the late 19th century, who campaigned endlessly in favor of sound commercially sold pigments, Damon Denys has been a modern champion of archival and traditional oil painting techniques, authoring articles such as "How to Prepare a Canvas the Safe, Traditional Way", and "An Introduction to Composition in Painting".

His works feature a combination of historical themes ("Icarus", "An Awakening Mind"), Shakespearean themes ("Puck: on the Eve of a Midsummer's Night", "Catching Dewdrops", "Lady Macbeth"), contemporary themes ("Autumn's First Breath", "October Eve"), as well as landscapes, cityscapes, and still life.

His first published works were a series of fantasy illustrations and paintings executed for Black Dragon Press while he was a student at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

Although he did not study painting formally, as he was completing a degree in art history he also completed his first major work, "Autumn's First Breath", which he has said was his "personal graduate thesis in painting". Although it was rejected from his university senior art show and openly snubbed by judges at the annual Utah art exhibition, the painting shortly thereafter became his first sold work of fine art at a price of nearly $20,000 US. This sale launched his early career as a professional artist and the eight months of laborious work the painting is said to have taken the artist to complete it established his reputation as a realist of high technical proficiency. As a point of interest, shortly after completion the painting was stolen by his elderly landlady in Salt Lake City, requiring the intervention of police to aid in its return. His works continue to fetch high prices on the market today, and the artist rarely allows his work to appear in public exhibitions.

He co-founded the Utah-based MountainState Archaeology firm and was a member of field excursions during the discovery and inventory of Freemont native American villages in the Utah desert in the vicinity of Salina, publishing a series of illustrations of artifacts based on their findings. He also served as the design editor of Utah Archaeology magazine and has appeared on the cover of Utah publications such as The Catalyst and Listen Magazine.

He is a member of the International Guild of Realism and has been featured at the Utah Children's Festival of Art and Music, Evening of Art and Music, as well as being a regular feature on the Salt Lake City monthly art walk.

In 2005 he left Salt Lake City, Utah and moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, citing respitory problems as a motivating factor in his decision to move to a warmer climate.