About the artist

Some of my earliest memories are of making art. I loved comics and cartoons as a child, and spent thousands of hours copying my favorite artists or imagining new characters to bring to life. 

I don't ever recall drawing a single plant.

I attended Cal Poly Humboldt after high school and fell in love with the redwoods and lush surroundings I was never exposed to in Southern California. The beauty of Humboldt County and my college experience had a profound impact on my artistic identity, planting seeds that would guide my journey as an artist nearly 20 years later.

There is something vitally important about maintaining a connection with nature, especially as we spend more of our lives indoors and in urban environments. I surround myself with plants, as do millions of others, in a subtle attempt to keep the connection with the natural world alive. My work is a celebration of the humble houseplant and the quiet peace they bring to our spaces. These plant portraits serve as daily reminders of the larger natural world we're part of, even when we can't step outside.

Through my paintings, I explore the relationship between humans and the plants we use to adorn the quiet corners of our homes. There's poetry in the repeating pattern of a vibrant succulent, or the cast shadow of a prickly cactus bathing in morning light. This is what I paint, and why I paint it.

Denis Wayne Gonzales lives in Porto, Portugal with his girlfriend Kristina, his son Adrian, and their Samoyed Koba.