Dutch Montana – Larger Than Life

ARTICLE & PHOTOGRAPHY BY LAURA HENKEL

When first meeting Dutch Montana, you sense he is larger than life. He is tall and gregarious, and his presence engulfs space. In fact, once you start talking to him, you realize he is a man who pushes his own boundaries to nourish his soul. His charisma is infectious. Because he maintains studios in both Las Vegas and Newport Beach, he exudes a unique West Coast joie de vivre that is distinctly his own.

Montana is an entrepreneur with a panache for launching businesses and letting them go so that he may create new ones. This has been Montana’s mode of operation since graduating from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. With each new business venture, he would explore roads less traveled to reinvigorate himself in nature. To that end, the stunning vistas found between the Pacific Ocean and the Mojave Desert serve as a source of inspiration for him and a way to reset from the demands of business. These therapeutic jaunts seeking magnificent environments ultimately ignite the art spirit within him. Much like Michelangelo’s Slaves, blocks of marble depicting human figures breaking free from stone as if they were alive, Montana’s landscape abstract paintings were waiting for him to bring them to life.

As a self-taught artist, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns, Gerhardt Richter, and Nicholas De Stael significantly influenced his work. Montana’s compositions have a delightful spontaneity to them; the large, lush canvases transport viewers to idyllic sunrises and sunsets along coastlines and high deserts. The paintings inspire a sense of calm elegance through the artist’s impressions of color and light. His allover method, which integrates treatments used by 20th-century Abstract Expressionists, imbues his art with an interesting sense of beauty and mystery. Montana is able to reveal strata of softly subdued gestural space by minimizing shape and approach. Each work of art has a tactile quality that represents both Montana’s artistic style and his distinctive cheerful immediacy. This radiant happiness is precisely what Montana is able to convey with such aplomb through his textured and artistic visions. These aspects are, in reality, the artist’s defining features.

The first step in Montana’s process is to reflect on a sight or impression before moving on to the sketching and color notation stages. Paintings are created in the studio by applying paint with brushes, palette knives, and other uncommon instruments more typically seen in hardware stores than in an artist’s studio. He begins with mixing pigments and making use of bands of color, sections that are then tastefully blurred with residues of things and forms. By combining raw color oil paints and refined linseed oil, Montana often adds a gel-like extender for smooth effects or a thinning agent to develop thinner, more translucent glazes. These glazes are created through the blending of raw color oil paints. “Before I lay the paint on certain pieces, I will first mix all of the colors together, and then I will use a huge knife to spread the pigment around the canvas,” says the artist. Because of the pressure applied by the knife, blended regions of color are produced, similar to the sfumato that can be seen in a scene of an ocean at sunset. After that, the painter will complete the work by applying varnish, multiple layers of varnish, and then between six and twelve months later, Damar will be added. “I feel that the most creative and powerful things in life are not complicated. It’s possible that a straightforward painting with three to four colors, crisp lines, or even just the “gesture” of a brush can have more of an impression than something with a lot of intricate detail. It is similar to how in mathematics and physics, the equations that are the most revolutionary and that answer the most complicated issues in the universe are simple and elegant.”

I had the extraordinary opportunity to visit Montana’s studio gallery in the heart of downtown Las Vegas. The Scotch Eighties property spans 15,000 square feet and has been meticulously curated to display works of art according to the dimensions of the interior space. The location has an abundance of natural lighting as well as ambient lighting, which enables shadows to move across canvases and reveal more nuanced details, which enhances the visual experience. Because of his extensive collector base and collaboration with interior designers, he constantly produces new works. At the time of this article, he had just finished a site-specific commission, Four Palms Laguna, measuring 11’ x 5’ for a home in town created for a 25’ foyer, and was in the process of painting a custom piece from his Lucky 7 series at the request of an interior designer for a penthouse on The Strip.

“It is a great pleasure of mine to collaborate with interior designers on the production of large-scale works of art for their respective clients. Bigger is better, and it’s a challenge and a pleasure for me to create pieces suitable for use in expansive interior settings. The majority of the time, customers ask me to produce additional works of art, which ultimately results in an original series tailored specifically for that customer.”

When I spoke with the interior designer who commissioned Four Palms Laguna for his client, he stated that his client was “immediately drawn to this series the moment she stepped into Montana’s studio gallery. She was particularly fascinated by the palette knife strokes and the many ways the light reflected off the canvas, as she was an enthusiastic art collector. My client was completely unaware that Montana had added 22 and 12-karat gold leaf to the painting based on their interactions. The results were astounding despite the understated use of the metals. The act moved my client to tears. We had a dialogue with the artist, and it was a conversation that will stay with us forever. In the future, I will definitely will work with Montana again. How could I not?”

Not only does Montana’s studio gallery act as a source of inspiration for the artist, but it is also an ideal setting to allow collectors to resonate with the paintings in an exclusive environment. Jill Abelman, Owner and Principal Designer of Inside Style, said, “Upon stepping into Montana’s space, I was impressed by the grandeur. The paintings of Montana almost encourage viewers to let their minds wander. When I was looking at his work, one of the thoughts that went through my head was, ‘I wish I were there.’ His use of color and sweeping brushstrokes added so much to the ambiance of the room. That made me desire to experience more. One comes away from the visual experience feeling absolutely uplifted, while at the same time being conscious that what they are partaking in is not the typical art experience seen in Las Vegas.”

One of the many reasons why Las Vegas is one of my favorite cities in the world is because it is populated by some of the most creatively gifted people from all over the world. Because of this draw, the culture is one that invites people from all different walks of life and is remarkable in its own way. Visitors, and even some people who call this wonderful city their home, believe that the region is devoid of noteworthy artwork and artists. My opinion is not the same. Outside The Strip, there exists a veritable treasury of amazing art for those collectors. You merely need to be aware of where you should look.

As an expert in the realm of art advisory services, it is my distinct honor to present Dutch Montana as a fresh beacon of light in our neon metropolis. There is no question that Dutch Montana is one-of-a-kind in every sense of the word. His paintings are a clear representation of his ingenuity as well as the talent that he possesses as an artist. His artwork, much like the man himself, is in a category all by itself. Montana’s artwork is made available globally through Singular Art and may be found in a diverse range of private collections in several countries worldwide.

Visit www.singulart.com for more.