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Denver painter Rob Gratiot takes on challenging subject matter rendered in mind-boggling detail. (Colleen Smith\/Special to The Denver Gazette)<\/p>\nLongtime Arts Students League of Denver teacher to show paintings and 3-D works <\/p>\n
Robert Gratiot\u2019s Congress Park home, like most residences in the historic central Denver neighborhood, stands as a charming, one-of-a-kind brick house. Yet beyond the arched, wooden front door, the interior testifies to Gratiot\u2019s lifetime of artistry.<\/p>\n
Denver painter Rob Gratiot takes on challenging subject matter rendered in mind-boggling detail. (Colleen Smith\/Special to The Denver Gazette)<\/p>\n
Upstairs and down, Gratiot\u2019s house holds hundreds of photorealistic paintings for which the artist is known. The paintings keep company with dozens of his hand-built \u201cPeaceable Kingdom\u201d ceramic figurines, his series of stamped and glazed clay \u201cTiles of Wisdom and Truth,\u201d stacks of cigar boxes painted with miniature landscapes or skyscapes and shelf after shelf holding his school of carved wooden fish with shiny fins cut from tin cans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always given myself permission to do a variety of things,\u201d Gratiot said. \u201cMost of my work has never been seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s about to change in the coming year. The artist, 79, is anticipating his retrospective exhibition at the Curtis Center of Arts in Greenwood Village. And while the show is almost a year away, the run-up to the retrospective finds Gratiot introspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of group shows with one or two, sometimes three or four paintings. In a way \u2014 and this goes back to my shyness \u2014 a solo show scares me quite a bit,\u201d Gratiot said.<\/p>\n
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Denver painter Rob Gratiot created a series of ceramic tiles he calls \u201cTiles of Wisdom and Truth.\u201d (Colleen Smith\/Special to The Denver Gazette) <\/p>\n
On the other hand, his body of work is bold. As a painter, the artist has most notably demonstrated his zeal for reflections and uncompromising detail. Gratiot has reached the summit of photorealism. He\u2019s serious about his art, yet his subject matter often is playful: candies in reflective wrappers, colorful glass marbles or clusters of tiny toys all rendered on a grand scale and in mind-boggling detail.<\/p>\n
HIS FORMER STUDENT, FUTURE CURATOR<\/p>\n
Lisa Neeper serves as the cultural arts manager at The Curtis Center for the Arts, housed in a 1914 schoolhouse, the oldest municipal building in Greenwood Village. Previously, Neeper held similar community arts leadership positions in the cities of Denver and Thornton.<\/p>\n
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Denver painter Robert Gratiot looks over his artworks created over decades in his Congress Park home and studio. (Colleen Smith\/Special to The Denver Gazette)<\/p>\n
Neeper, who earned her art degree at Metropolitan State University, first connected with Gratiot when she took one of his painting classes at the Art Students League of Denver (ASLD) about 25 years ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s lovely. He has such a nice personality,\u201d Neeper said of Gratiot. \u201cI took a traditional painting class with him, and he was very approachable and so supportive. Rob has a quirky sense of humor. I noticed that right away, and we see it in some of his paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neeper reconnected with Gratiot in 2025 at the Curtis Center\u2018s All Colorado Art Show, which Gratiot has participated in for many of the past 43 years of the exhibit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Rob\u2019s work. He\u2019s always been on my radar, and I\u2019ve always been a big fan of his work,\u201d Neeper said. \u201cWhen he was showing here, I remember a lot of the super-real paintings with marbles and reflective surfaces. One of his paintings of reflections lets the viewer see into the building and the reflections on glass, car windows and mirrors. There are so many different planes that show Rob\u2019s idea about abstract realism. He captured it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Curtis Center\u2019s challenge will be to capture Gratiot\u2019s artistic expression over the years \u2014 his reflective architectural works, his painting clusters of John Lennon wire-rimmed glasses or the colorful lollipops known Saf-T-Pops in cellophane, swanky storefronts, neon signs.<\/p>\n
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Denver artist Rob Gratiot\u2019s school of hand-carved, oil-painted fish with fins he cut from tin cans. (Colleen Smith\/Special to The Denver Gazette) <\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be a big show. Curtis Center looks diminutive from the outside, but it\u2019s quite large. We\u2019ll typically show 75 small or 50 large paintings. For Rob\u2019s retrospective, we\u2019ll include his 3-D works,\u201d Neeper said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about this solo show to support him and exhibit some of his works that have never been seen. And we sell a lot, and we only take 30 percent, so we\u2019re very motivated to support Rob as an artist in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
GRATITUDE FOR TEACHING, COMMUNITY<\/p>\n
Though he has worked much of his life in solitude, Gratiot values community. He\u2019s been a fixture at the ASLD since 1995. Gratiot teaches oil and acrylic painting classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeaching at the Art Students League is on my gratitude list,\u201d the artist said. \u201cEverybody wants to be there. It\u2019s a beautiful community. They bond with each other, and we all bond together. Connecting with all the personalities helps me in my isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bond, Gratiot said, serves the collective and the individual. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in a recovery program, and we talk about prayer and meditation a lot. There\u2019s such a focus when people are making art. I think it is a meditative process,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery day before I go teach, I ask God to help me teach with wisdom, humor and kindness. I try to get that trio with everybody I meet, and I think I\u2019m pretty good at what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aubrey Ryan, ASDL director of programming and community engagement, noted in an email that Gratiot teaches two monthly painting classes that meet once a week and are always at or near capacity. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe has some students who have been taking his classes for years,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cRob is friendly and welcoming, and his classroom dynamic exudes that energy. He meets his students where they\u2019re at, both in terms of their ability and experience, and he takes time every class to individually check in with each student.\u201d<\/p>\n
His classes typically include 13 or 14 students. <\/p>\n
Gratiot said: \u201cA lot of students in younger days took art classes in college, and then real life got in the way. Some have kids who are gone, so they come back and see if they have still the spark to paint. And generally, they do. Or we can find it in them.\u201d<\/p>\n
AGING AS AN ARTIST<\/p>\n
For Gratiot, the spark never entirely ceases. Yet, like any artist \u2014 or any person, for that matter \u2014 he struggles with challenges. He was diagnosed with an ocular condition that could affect his artistic vision. Yet asked whether he considers altering from photorealism to a less demanding painting style, he shakes his head no.<\/p>\n
\u201cI might paint something not as complex as reflections, but I\u2019m not attracted to Impressionism. I\u2019m still interested in Realism, though maybe a simpler realism. Something less complex,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI walk a lot in the neighborhood, and it\u2019s a wonderful neighborhood to walk. There\u2019s a dumpster on Detroit Street, and the short end of the dumpster \u2014 there\u2019s something beautiful about it, a handsomeness. It looks a bit beat up, like it\u2019s had some lifetime experiences for an inanimate object. It\u2019s not as complex as the reflections, but I see the idea of abstraction among the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gratiot earned his undergraduate degree in art at the University of the Pacific in California. He then attended the Art Center College of Design in the Wilshire District of Los Angeles for three years.<\/p>\n
Gratiot completed his Master\u2019s in Fine Arts degree at DU in 1973.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at a great art school in L.A., but L.A. was very unhealthy for me. And the school was very technically oriented toward illustration, advertising, car design,\u201d Gratiot said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDU was a very different orientation. They assumed you knew how to paint. The first quarter there I was in a seminar class, and I\u2019d never been to a seminar in my life. The head of the department said to all of us brand-new students, \u2018Next week, come back and talk about the premise of your art.\u2019 When I got home, I looked up the word \u2018premise.\u2019 It was a fulfilling assignment. DU was a great school for me. Sometimes, it\u2019s so chancy whether something\u2019s going to work out or not, but DU was a good fit for me, and they let me teach some classes as a graduate student.\u201d<\/p>\n
HIS FATHER THE PHYSICIAN AND PAINTER<\/p>\n
Gratiot\u2019s first art teacher was his father, a physician who painted as a hobby.<\/p>\n
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Denver painter Rob Gratiot will have a retrospective at The Curtis Center in Greenwood Village in early 2027. (Colleen Smith\/Special to The Denver Gazette) <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a studio in our house, and he\u2019d give me lessons. He was patient. At night, instead of reading storybooks, we\u2019d look at art books. The first painter I loved was Renoir, and I knew that \u2018Renoir\u2019 rhymed with \u2018red car,\u2019\u201d Gratiot said.<\/p>\n
A lifetime of artistry has left him with a lot to show for his efforts. All the artwork. All the students. All the collectors and the exhibitions. But Gratiot admits his life isn\u2019t always as sweet and richly satisfying as foil-wrapped Swiss chocolates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been plagued with depression and anxiety. I\u2019m a little bit phobic, so I like to control my environment. These are kind of serious paintings, but they have a lightheartedness to them, as well,\u201d he said. \u201cMy paintings are very honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
His paintings, too, are a profound reflection upon reflection much like the artist\u2019s deep mind, his sense of humanity, his sense of divinity.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing about all of my paintings: The images moved my soul. It\u2019s hard to describe, but there\u2019s a connection in my heart,\u201d Gratiot said. \u201cI\u2019m insecure enough that I want people to like them, because that\u2019s a reflection on me. It isn\u2019t that I have an idea of pleasing anybody but myself with my art, but I want people to be pleased by my art. I want people to love my work. I hope people find joy in my art. I hope it\u2019s uplifting.\u201d<\/p>\n
SAVE THE DATE\/IF YOU GO<\/p>\n
Curtis Center for the Arts: \u00a02349 East Orchard Road, Greenwood Village, CO, 80121.<\/p>\n
Gallery Hours: 8:30 a.m. \u2013 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. \u2013 4 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n
Phone: 303-797-1779 <\/p>\n