Light and color fill the Special Exhibit Gallery at the Bureau of Land  Management Anasazi Heritage Center thanks to the inspiration,  perspiration, and vision of artist Stanton Englehart.

Englehart’s paintings, representing a lifetime of work, are the subject of  the exhibit “Seasons on the Plateau” on display through the end of March.  A public opening celebration begins at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 9.  Museum admission is free throughout the winter season.

Stanton Englehart grew up in Lewis, Colorado, about 10 miles northwest of Dolores. After earning his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University  of Colorado, he returned to the Four Corners to live and paint. He founded  the art department at Fort Lewis College in Durango, and retired in 1991  after 30 years on the faculty.

Landscape painting was not fashionable during the 1950s when Englehart was a student. His teachers tried to steer him elsewhere, but they eventually realized that his love-affair with land and sky was not a passing fancy.

Englehart’s signature subject and style —huge, vivid landscapes of space  and form rendered in oils—are well-represented in this show and prized by  collectors throughout the world. The title piece is a four-panel work almost 25 feet wide. It is accompanied by 12 individual canvases named for  the months of the year, as well as others in similar style.

Earlier paintings, featuring different techniques and materials, offer  insight into Englehart the man. Many paintings in the exhibit have never  been shown in public before. “The Women,” a series of 20 works in mixed  media, teases the viewer with tales untold from behind pursed lips and  challenging stares. Another mixed-media series, featuring barnyards and  farm animals, hints at grisly facts under a veneer of false innocence.

The Anasazi Heritage Center is three miles west of Dolores on State  Highway 184, and is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. seven days a week  except on Christmas and New Year’s Day. For more information, call the  Center at 882-5600, or visit the museum’s web site at  www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/ahc.html.