Stanton Englehart, a well-known Southwestern painter, died of the effects of Alzheimer’s at his Durango home April 22. He was 78.
A celebration of his life is planned for 1 p.m. May 17 at the Community Concert Hall of Fort Lewis College in Durango.
Englehart, who taught art at Fort Lewis for 30 years, exhibited his work in Denver, Boulder, Durango, Pueblo and Kansas.
Known for his landscapes, “he painted the soul of the Southwest and made it breathe,” said Jackson Clark II, who owns the Toh-Atin Gallery in Durango. The gallery has displayed Englehart’s work for years.
“His paintings are never stagnant,” Clark said. “From the moment you look at one, your eye starts moving through the curves of the painting.”
Englehart could also do whimsical and sensual paintings. “He thought the earth was sensual,” Clark said. “He was devoted to perfection. Kids he taught loved to hear him talk about paintings and their relation to life.”
“He urged students to take what gifts they had into the world and create beauty and encouraged the spirit of life-long learning,” said Margaret Pacheco, an art teacher and a former student who lives in Marvel.
Englehart, who built a studio behind his home and had another at Fort Lewis, did some gigantic paintings, sometimes in three or four sections and often in brilliant colors. One, which was in four sections, was 28 feet long and 7 feet high.
Englehart also worked in several media. He used pieces from a metal barrel and, with a welding torch, made 4-foot-long figures of men and women, said his wife, Pat Englehart.
He worked “nonstop, early and late every day,” said his wife. He left “an overwhelming collection” of work, said his daughter, Sharon Kay Englehart of Mancos.
“He really had a work ethic,” said his son, Michael Englehart of Aztec, N.M. “He got his sleep in catnaps.”
Englehart often donated artwork to local charities and sold paintings “to people from all over the world,” said his wife, but he seldom raised his prices.
“He would rather share the paintings” than put the prices so high no one could afford them, Clark said.
Stanton Englehart was born near the tiny town of Lewis, near Cortez, on March 26, 1931. He graduated from Cortez High School.
A family story says that he started painting as a child when he was confined to his bed with rheumatic fever.
“He did have rheumatic fever,” said his wife, but he was creative in his stories, she said.
He began drawing early and was known to decorate the margins of his school tests with airplanes or other figures.
He met Patsy Ruth Powell in high school, and they married April 28, 1949.
Englehart worked at a feed store but decided “there’s more to life than carrying sacks of feed around,” said his wife. So he went to college, earning a degree in fine arts at Fort Lewis and a master’s in fine arts at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Englehart had “an irreverent sense of humor,” said his daughter. “But when he tried to tell jokes, he would start laughing so hard that he couldn’t get the punch line out.”
Englehart loved to hike, camp and ride his bike. “One year he did 10,000 miles,” his wife said.
In addition to his wife, daughter and son, he is survived by four grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; two sisters, Laverne Starkebaum of Haxtun and Karla Wiescamp of Del Norte; and two brothers, Jim Englehart and Chuck Englehart, both of Cortez.
Inside.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
