Local Artist Gordon Deane

After coating the exteriors of Lake Minnetonka homes, a local painter expresses his artistic core.

By: Andy Greder | From the issue: July 2011

Deane created three frieze panoramas for the Cargill House, one depicting the shores of Lake Minnetonka and another of wildflowers.

Since an eye for color is his specialty and switching styles is his proclivity, it’s safe to go with Gordon Deane’s self description of him being sort of a chameleon.

The 60-year-old painted the exteriors of historic homes—including one gem on Lake Minnetonka—for the last three decades, but now his paint only reaches canvases in a variety of artistic expressions.

The turning point came in 2006 at the Cargill House on Carson’s Bay in Deephaven. Deane arrived to paint his last home exterior, but his attention went to the interior, said the female landscape architect who owns the home. Deane coated the home in rich chocolate brown, oak leak green, caramel, butterscotch and rust. Meanwhile, he showed the homeowner his portfolio of portrait and landscape paintings—the same art purchased by 3M, Honeywell and Merrill Lynch.

“After seeing his work, I could see he had a talent not given to many people,” says the homeowner.

The owner of the Cargill House loved his work and commissioned him for three frieze panoramas. Their plan called for more than 200 feet of mini murals bordering the walls in the living room, dining room and along a staircase in the century-old home.

The dining room panorama covers the four seasons of wildflowers in Minnesota. The living room panorama is a landscape of Lake Minnetonka circa when the home was built in 1906. And the staircase panorama is a night setting of boats leaving the home.

“In the dead of winter, I will go in and see the prairie so rich in color,” the homeowner says. “He sees color so well; he sees it as an artist.”

Deane, however, didn’t always follow what he calls his “artistic soul.” After graduating from Macalester College in St. Paul in the early 1970s, he sold cameras for a Minneapolis photography shop and arranged home furnishings at Dayton’s; he also made prints for other artists. All the while, he was painting home exteriors.

“It paid the bills, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do,” says Deane, a divorcee with one grown daughter.

Deane’s liberation came about five years ago when his aging body told him it wouldn’t be wise to continue to climb ladders and paint eves. He decided it was time to immerse himself in his artistic passion. Now, every day, he goes to his small studio to create. One minute, he’ll work on a section of the wildflower panorama for the Cargill House, and the next, he’ll continue on an abstract portrait.

“I like going from a preconceived notion to just pushing paint,” he says.

One of Deane’s unique styles is to create two portraits on one 4x8 foot canvas. One portrait is a realistic interpretation of a person’s appearance; the other is a more abstract interpretation of the person’s make-up or personality.

A wall in his studio holds a double self portrait. The image on the left is of him wearing a striped neck tie and looking like as a stern businessman. The image on the right is in the shape of a man, but with broad black strokes painted in a seemingly furious or unsettled manner.

“It’s noose-like,” he says. “It’s as though he is being strangled by the daily-ness of his work.”

Was this double self-portrait a depiction of how he felt as a camera salesman or arranging home-décor? “It could be anyone,” he responds.

Home designer David Heide works with Deane on home restoration projects and became a big fan of his art. He has one of his pieces hanging in his home. “He has this spirit to his work that is so compelling and profound,” Heide says.

A portrait sometimes can’t be meaningful to those not depicted, but that isn’t the case with Deane’s work, Heide says. “His work transcends that,” he adds. “It’s such a character analysis.”

Deane’s character enjoys the crossover freedom of being a chameleon.

“I felt all along that this was my calling, but now I’m able to devote much more time and energy to it,” he says. “It’s a wonderful gift that I have in the ability to be able to do this. I love to paint. I really love it. I embrace so many things and styles and love it all. My interest as a visual artist, as a painter and photographer extend to a number of different styles and forms. It’s all very interesting. I never get bored.”

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