Home / Gallery / Biography / Commissions
Albert Dreher
Master of the Oil Wash
Rest in Peace
1949-2020
Although it was apparent at a young age that Albert Dreher's talents lay
in the arts, success
and its consequent rewards were not handed to him -Dreher pursued his every ambition with a
dedication and drive to be rivaled by the masters.
With only a dream and support of his high school
art teacher, Dreher enrolled in the prestigious Colorado Institute of
Art, two days after his 1967
graduation from Meritt Hutton High School, Thornton, Colorado.
Dreher recalls, "Mary my wife (now of
fifty
years), worked two jobs then, and I worked graveyard shift in
a psychiatric hospital to get me through art school. I was determined to become the best graphics
designer in the country. But in 1969 - just after receiving my first
associates
degree in advertising design "I was drafted into military
service and my career was suddenly put on hold."
After training in the United States Army as a military
Policeman, Dreher was assigned to the 551st Military Police Company,
Fort Polk,
Louisiana. During part of his two-year duty, Dreher was engaged
in escorting military prisoners from Long Bihn, Vietnam, to
Leavenworth, Kansas. "One of the most tormenting experiences of my life
happened in Vietnam." Dreher recounts. "My time in the bush was
limited to convoy
escort, but during one of those escorts, my partner and best friend
was killed by Viet Cong gunfire as he was riding next to me. The
whole experience led me even deeper into my quest to create and succeed. "
With his military obligation behind him, Dreher
immediately returned to Denver with his wife and new son Eric, to
reenter in the Colorado
Institute of Art and resumed his studies in mid- 1972.
Dreher earned his second associates degree in
advertising design in less than a year. Following six years of
additional study and intense work
experience, Dreher was awarded his Bachelor of Art Degree in
Visual Communications from the University of Colorado.
Dreher's work throughout his ten year
advertising design career earned him the acclaim he was seeking, both
locally and nationally, from
fellow professionals, as well as various prominent organizations.
Numbered among his many achievement awards are 12 Grand Alphie's,
12 Alphie's from the Advertising Federation; 4 Gold Medals from the New
York Art Directors Club; Best of Show (Westinghouse Telecommunications)
from the Publications Relations Society of America; 2 Mame Awards
(Green Valley Ranch) from the Colorado Real Estate Brokers
Associations; and special recognition for an environmental
theme from the United Nations.
Although a successful Art Director and Designer Dreher forced himself to
paint in his free time. He
developed the "Oil Wash" technique, learned
how to frame and consigned with galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
Sedona, Arizona and Durango, Colorado.
In 1982 Dreher ended his career in
the Advertising / Design industry and began his Fine Art Career, full
time.
In 2000 Dreher was awarded an "Open Studio" grant from the Tucson Pima
Arts Council. Funded
by the Benton Foundation. The 12 month
grant was to educate and train professional artists in the cyber medium.
At the conclusion of the program, Dreher had designed and proudly
and proudly launched his web-page on the world wide web.
In 1998, Dreher suffered a severe
heart attack
while roller-balding. For the next 15 years the Veterans
Administration Medical Center in
Tucson, Arizona managed to keep him alive with medications, exercise and
diet. In October 2015 he was forced to undergo a quadruple
heart by-pass. The by-bass was less than successful. The Cardiologists
at the SAVAHCS decided to send Dreher to the VASLCHCS/Transplant
Center in
Salt
Lake City, in consideration for a heart transplant.
After several months of
physical and mental testing, Dreher was added to the National Heart Transplant Lists. September 21,
2014, Dreher received his life saving heart transplant from a male
donor.
Since Albert's transplant he has added an addition to the Sun / Moon in
all his paintings. He states the addition to his work is a tribute to
his honorable donor.
Everyday Dreher excitedly celebrates his new born life with
his wife, son, granddaughters, family and friends. He continues to draw,
design,
paint, frame and conduct business with his galleries and
personal clients.
Dreher asserts, "Every morning I say a prayer for my donor, God bless
him!"
As a Colorado native, Albert Dreher was exposed early to the timeless
beauty of the area's indigenous
landscapes and natural mysteries of
ancient cultures. His fascination for sacred power places of the
American Indian grew with his increasing desire to transform his career
from that
of advertising designer to fine artist.
"As time passed," Dreher cites, "I have a vision
and a growing need to translate that vision through the
contemporary arts. The only way I knew
to truly accept and communicate the integrity of my ideas
was through a new medium."
In 1981, Dreher painted and consigned ten
original paintings to the former Scarf Gallery, Santa Fe, New
Mexico, for his first one-man show. These initial works appeared not only to symbolize humanity's emergence
from one world to the next, but his own as well, since Dreher
took with him disciplines and methods he had acquired
throughout the first half of his creative life.
Dreher quickly became known as a pioneer in oil
wash techniques and artist on the leading edge
of contemporary painting. In ten short years,
Dreher has risen to be one of the 20th Century's most
respected artistic communicators of the nature and values of collective
consciousness of his time.
Rich in unity Dresher's works bespeak the
Indian's ultimate beliefs in nature of one
reality. Everything in a Dreher painting flows; space, color,
time, art and reality. The circular sun/moon symbol seen in nearly all
the Dresher's pieces is a constant symbol of hope arising out
of despair - the light dawning behind darkness.
Dreher believes, "If I can evoke any emotion
from the viewer - whether it's happiness, depression, nostalgia, or
spiritual reflection - I've succeeded.
With such success comes the belief that each painting carries a little
piece of his heart."
Today Dreher's work days are not long enough to
supply the demand for his unusual oil wash paintings, which can be seen
in galleries
throughout the West. His favorite subjects are the power places of the
prehistoric American Indians (The Anasazi) - especially the ancient
kivas
and cliff dwellings he finds hidden in the sacred mountains and mesas of
the Southwest.
Other popular subjects highlighted in Dreher's
unusual paintings include the American Indian woman, traditional
adobes and Midwest farmland.
Dreher journeys alone to these power places to
sketch and paint..."places of the soul,"
he says, "that are complete with both lost realities and the
hope of newly emerging ones - endless cycles of death and rebirth
resounds there, both in spirit and form."
"Kivas," notes Dreher, "are structures where
sacred rituals took place." "The Ancient Ones enjoyed a rich religious
life and made no distinction
between reality and fantasy.
In fact,
underground kivas contained a covered hole in the floor, opposite
the fire, which symbolically represented
the entrance to the Underworld - the place, they believed,
from which people had originally climbed onto
the surface of our present world."
His sought after paintings have attracted the attention of collectors
throughout the world. Dreher's
works hang in such institutional, corporations and private art collections
as The Denver Art Museum, The Albuquerque Art Museum, United States
Air Force Academy, Vietnam Veterans Association Denver Chapter, Mobile Oil
Corporation, General Motors Corporation, Ruger International Firearms,
Frank Lloyd Wright, "Westhope" House, Tulsa,Oklahoma, GEO Sciences Limited, Wood, Ris & Haynes, P.C.,
Kidneigh & Kaufman,
P.C., Prince Zuhair Fayez, Saudi Arabia,
McDonald's Corporation, Sky Harbor
International Airport, Motorola Corporation
and actors Bryan Pinchot and Nick Nolte.
"Music In the Mountains." Durango & Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Classic Symphony Orchestra Season Promotion.
Celebrating the 26th Anniversary
of the Durango & Pagosa Springs. Symphony Orchestra and the 206th Anniversary of Mesa Verde National Monument.
Dreher can be seen at various times during the year at his one-man
shows
throughout the West and Southwest.
His paintings are on view daily at the following galleries:
Toh-Atin Gallery
Durango, Colorado.
Albert Dreher Fine Art
Face book: albert.dreher.1
Home / Gallery / Biography / Commissions