An elderly woman in her Sunday-best hat, a father carrying his son on his shoulder, a man waiting at a bus stop, another asleep in his favorite chair. These evocative images of humble, hard-working people who are often overlooked by the world at large are so powerful in their simplicity that they motivated one New York art critic to describe their creator, Dean Mitchell, as a “modern-day Vermeer.”

“My work is primarily about the human experience,” Mitchell says. “I want it to be a commentary on the reality of life as lived by the ordinary people in this country.”

Read the full article in the January/February 2022 issue.

Winter Farmhouse

Watercolor
9 1/4” by 11”

“There is nothing more beautiful than a winter scene in watercolor—the white of the paper as a negative space to enhance the feel of melting snow.”

Carolyn

Oil
24” by 30”

“This is a painting of my cousin, Carolyn. The portrait is always challenging because a likeness isn’t what it’s all about for me. The ability to capture the sitter’s essence with a sense of mystery and intrigue is what I feel masters emotional depth.”