About the Artist

If you know me, as my close friends do, you know that my home is a studio space with a small bedroom and bathroom, and some kitchen counter space.  I can easily fill up a one bedroom apartment living room and dining area with art supplies, easels, and an office space.  A common question visitors ask is, “Where is your couch?” Or “Where is your TV?”  It always brings a smile. When there's art to make, who would want to watch TV? Either by habit or necessity, my living spaces have always been small.  I have had to get very efficient about space, because my income has been limited for almost four decades due to a catastrophic car accident I experienced at age 22.

Despite this early lesson in impermanence, and how dramatically my life changed from that event, my primary mode of expression and activism had been through creativity and a desire to help preserve wildlife and wild spaces.  My love of creativity won out over my early dream to be a wildlife officer at a nature preserve. 

As of late, my art is about exploring abstraction.  Although I love to depict humans and animals the most, I am expressing myself through the landscape; to say more with less. Living in the Southwest for a very long time has left me with many memories of sky and land that I am whittling down to very basic forms. Movement is a core principle of my work; color harmony, texture, bold strokes and layering are core elements and techniques. My art represents my kinesthetic experience of a subject.

Much of my exploration in color is self-taught. Although I studied some with a few of the most talented pastel painters in the country, most of my success in pastel and use of mixed media is influenced by my mentor, Dawn Emerson. Other contemporary artists who have strengthened my knowledge and skills include Ian Roberts and Vasili Katakis in composition and light & shadow, respectively.

Much like the Impressionists, I most enjoy using broken color. Angles, repetition, and gestural mark-making are dominant strategies to create dynamic movement. Gestural drawing and my kinesthetic connection to a subject is of utmost importance in any of my work. My work must be created quickly, as I have limited time at the easel. And this approach is reflective of my deep love for sculpture. Despite my physical limitations, I am devoted to the continuous and endless process of learning. The pain I experience on a daily basis is tempered by the joy of painting. 

You will sometimes find me outside drawing and painting trees (en plein air). 

Biography

Denali Brooke has lived most of her life in the Southwest - Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.  She received a Bachelor’s in Fine Art from the University of Arizona, with an emphasis in graphic design and illustration, and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Arizona State University.  She worked for ten years (1996 to 2006) helping the seriously mentally ill and persons with addictions before returning to art in 2009, joining the Pastel Society of New Mexico in Albuquerque.  Doing service work inside two art organizations and devoting much of her time and energy to painting, she quickly excelled and began teaching by 2013. In 2019, Denali became a Signature member of the Pastel Society of America, and earned a Master Circle distinction award from the International Association of Pastel Societies organization in June 2022.  While living in New Mexico and Colorado, she was a faculty member at both New Mexico Art League, in Albuquerque, and Center of the Arts Evergreen, in Evergreen. She relocated to Oregon in 2021, and currently facilitates online critiques in composition, drawing, and pastel painting. Denali is a mindfulness practitioner and a perpetual student of the dharma. She lives near Portland, Oregon.

Exhibitions

2024 Pure Color 2024 8th International Online Juried Exhibition - Pastel Society of North Carolina

2024 Spirit of Pastels Third Biennial International Open Juried Exhibition Online - Pastel Artists of Oregon

2022 International Association of Pastel Societies Exhibition - Albuquerque, NM

2020 Wonders of Winter - Center for the Arts, Evergreen - Evergreen, CO

2020 Gallery ABQ Awardees Salon Show - Albuquerque, NM

2019, 2017, and 2015 International Association of Pastel Societies Exhibition – Albuquerque, NM

2019, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012 National Pastel Painting Exhibition – Albuquerque

2019, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010 Masterworks of New Mexico – Albuquerque

2014 and 2013 Paint the Ballet Show – Albuquerque, New Mexico 

2014 Spirit of the Horse (invitational), New Mexico Art League - Albuquerque

2014 Oases (invitational), New Mexico Cancer Center - Albuquerque

Recognition

2025 Judge - 27th Annual MasterWorks of New Mexico Exhibition Miniatures Division

2022 International Association of Pastel Societies, Master Circle award

2022 International Association of Pastel Societies Exhibition Open Division - 2nd Place,

Maggie Price Award Her Hardest Hue to Hold

2020 Center for the Arts, Evergreen Member Show - 2nd Place for both Bison in White and Snowy Flight

2019 International Association of Pastel Societies - Honorable Mention Musings

2019 Pastel Society of America, Signature member

2019 Masterworks of New Mexico - The Gallery ABQ Salon Award of Excellence Homage to Degas

2018 Juror - 10th Annual Pastel Society of New Mexico Small Works Show

2018 Masterworks of New Mexico - Award of Excellence While You're Away

2016 Masterworks of New Mexico Small Works - People's Choice Award

2015 Signature Status Achieved - Pastel Society of New Mexico

2015 National Pastel Painting Exhibition - Sponsorship Award Boulder Bottoms

2014 Corrales Plein Air Painting Event – First Place

2013 National Pastel Painting Exhibition - Sponsorship Award Dancer's Dreams

2013 New Mexico Art League Student Show – Third Place

2012 Masterworks of New Mexico – First Place, Miniatures in color pencil

2010 Masterworks of New Mexico – Award of Excellence Her Essence

Other Affiliations, Demos and Presentations:

2009 - 2017 Pastel Society of New Mexico

2012 - 2019 Steering Committee for Pastel Society of New Mexico, MasterWorks

2018 - 2019 Co-founder - Drawing Society of New Mexico, Albuquerque

2022 Memorial painting of Thorne and Jazmine, commissioned by Annie Garcia for the ABQ Zoo 

2018 Promotional painting image winner for the Plein Air Garden Tour, Albuquerque, NM 2018

2018 and 2019 Demos at John Day Middle School’s 5th Grade Rewards Day, ABQ

2016 and 2018 Visiting Artist Series free class and demo, Palo Duro Senior Center February, ABQ 

Presentations

Demo/presentation for the New Mexico Art League, painting the figure in pastel - 2015 ABQ

Demo/presentation for the Pastel Society of New Mexico member meeting ABQ - November 2014

Demo/presentation for the Pastel Society of New Mexico member meeting, ABQ - January 2013

Building Financial Inclusion for All: A Call to Action, New Mexico Financial Inclusion Summit on supporting disabled workers - 

ABQ, November 2017 

Other Business

Co-founder and Sole Artist of Life is a Doodle, LLC, Tucson, AZ 2012 to 2015