'Bathing by the River' by Len Chmiel, Art Center College of Design

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Inscribed lower right, 'Len Chmiel' (American, born 1942) and painted circa 1980.

Born in Chicago, Chmiel moved to California at … Read more Inscribed lower right, 'Len Chmiel' (American, born 1942) and painted circa 1980.

Born in Chicago, Chmiel moved to California at the age of eight. He first worked as a mechanical draftsman for Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles while taking night courses at the Art Center College of Design. After graduation, he began to build his career as a fine artist, painting and freelancing as an illustrator in California for several years before moving to Colorado. Now, from his studio, a former barn in Lafayette, he creates landscape and still-lives that reflect his love of the outdoors, where he frequently both gardens and hunts. Although he has long focused on fine art, he continues to take an occasional illustration assignment, including giving instruction to illustrators at the Disney Corporation and teaching workshops which he finds helpful in defining his own work. Chmiel cites the California painter Richard Diebenkorn as an early influence on his work that allowed the intuitive side of his personality to increasingly affect his painting.

Over the course of a long and successful career, Chmiel has exhibited widely and with success and has been the recipient of numerous medals and juried awards including the 2002 Artists' Choice Award at the Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale. We are pleased to offer this lyrical river landscape, painted when the artist was in his late thirties. See less